Disney's AI Experiments: A Comical Disaster of Legal & Union Woes
The prevailing narrative in Hollywood often portrays artificial intelligence as an unstoppable force, poised to displace countless workers across the film and television industries. Yet, behind the scenes, a different, more complex story is unfolding. Entertainment giant Disney, despite establishing a dedicated business unit for AI, has reportedly encountered significant hurdles in its efforts to integrate the technology, particularly while navigating the sensitivities of the very human talent it still relies upon.
According to reports from The Wall Street Journal, Disney has, on multiple occasions in recent years, abandoned AI-driven projects due to mounting legal concerns and the palpable threat of rejection from powerful actor and writer unions, who view such technology as a direct threat to their livelihoods.
One notable instance involved the forthcoming live-action remake of “Moana.” Disney reportedly explored “cloning” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for his role by deepfaking his face onto the body of his similarly-built cousin, Tanoai Reed. While Johnson himself approved the concept, Disney’s legal team ultimately failed to establish clear protocols for protecting the data generated from such “digital double” filming. More critically, they struggled to ensure the company would fully own the intellectual property if any part of it was produced by AI. This trepidation is well-founded: given that most advanced AI models are trained on vast datasets of publicly scraped text and imagery, the copyright status of their outputs remains notoriously ambiguous – a precarious situation for a company as fiercely protective of its intellectual property as Disney. Despite 18 months of negotiations, Disney and its AI partner Metaphysic could not finalize a contract, leading to the shelving of the deepfake scenes, which will not appear in the “Moana” reboot.
A similar scenario played out during the development of “Tron: Ares,” the second sequel to the 1982 original. Executives reportedly pitched a scene featuring Bit, an animated sidekick to Jeff Bridges’ character Kevin Flynn, being generated on-screen by AI, with a human actor providing its voice. However, concerns over potential negative publicity prompted Disney to scrap the plan. The timing was particularly sensitive, as the company was in the midst of fraught contract negotiations with writer and actor unions. Introducing AI covertly during such a period would have risked significant backlash from guilds actively campaigning against the technology.
Adding a layer of irony to these internal struggles, Disney has simultaneously been battling other AI companies in court to protect its own intellectual property. This past June, the entertainment behemoth, alongside Universal Studios, filed a lawsuit against the AI image generator startup Midjourney. The complaint vehemently accused Midjourney of using copyrighted material without authorization, labeling the startup as a “quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s legal chief, offered some insight into the company’s seemingly contradictory approach, telling The Wall Street Journal that Disney aims to “enable our creators to use the best AI tools available without compromising the company long term.” This statement underscores the tightrope Disney is attempting to walk: embracing the potential of AI while simultaneously safeguarding its vast library of characters and stories from the very technology it seeks to leverage. It’s a complex balancing act, made all the more challenging by the company’s initial decision to fully commit to AI development.