Live data from Hacker News

The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

openai.com

381–390 of 520 posts

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually straight up don't think they give a shit anymore. I think decorum works in an environment where decorum is the norm, but we have entered a political moment where that is no longer the case. And I think that this kind of thing bleeds so heavily into culture that they no longer give a shit about having their characters next to it. They have enough plausible deniability; they did not create the content. I thi…

When I became a parent I was really surprised at how much crap Disney puts out. My previous exposure had just been their blockbuster movies which showed a close attention to detail. But you scratch under the surface and it's an endless pile of awful quality clothing, crappy lunchboxes, that kind of thing. To the point where you assume it's an unauthorized rip off until you discover they license to anyone. And to say…

Krusty the clown was a parody of Disney and the simpsons authors nailed it. [1]

Disney has basically always been like this. Overpriced goods powered by the brand alone.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Dsy16hhOI

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And to say nothing of the shoddy quality of their TV shows. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's lazy CG animation and unimaginative storytelling is shocking given Mickey is supposed to be their signature character. ≤4-year-olds do not care: there's bright colours and motion, and some semblance of story. The point is not to give some kind of lesson, but to distract/entertain (and probably release dopamine). See also Paw Patrol…

Bluey is just one show. Disney has an entire network and platform to fill with content. There's not a lot of producers making Bluey level content, yet the vacuum still needs to be filled. Bluey level content also costs more to create than the one step above AI slop to fill that void. Just like not every song on an album will be a banger, there will always be fluff/fill/padding.

Fluff/filler on a banger album will still be decent. And it may even be someone's favorite. The point is that quality is fairly consistent. Not that everything is "peak".

The only real bastion of hope in an ocean of slop is that demand for curwtion will be better than ever. People who want quality will tire of swimming and pay larger premiums for someone to pick out thr nuggets in the rough. Basicslly, the new HBO.

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You appear to be lost. Who said and where's the "false dichotomy" you allude to in the discussion above?

I read your comment as saying that we should blame the people who create the demand for Disney's products, and the voters who elect the politicians, instead of Disney and the politicians. Not so?

No, comparative blame is fair for all parties.

The context is messy, but my comment's in the context of rejecting blame on Disney alone for "losing their way" when they have had the same way (read: $$$) as before and they're delivering products people want.

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, basically Disney invested a billion dollar in Pregnant Elsa Spider-Man Beach Castle .

You need to realize more children in the world interact with Disney IP through Pregnant Elsa Spider-Man than through actual Disney real IP. Perhaps this is a play to own and monetize that vector in the future.

In the same way more people interact with the Tifa senate meme than played FF7 (any version), sure.

We let "engagement" get way too far in the way of IP's that already won brand awareness. Ad views are NOT off putting a view from even the unprofitable streaming platform. Let alone a theater ticket. It's pretty much the opposite of Nintendo's model to keep everything premium for as long as possible.

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pay for advertisement and product placement. Not the other way around. We live in an atenttion economy, if Disney content is not in your face on all mediums (which now include AI slop), they lose money.

The RIAA got it their way with Suno and Udio. Sam Altman must be an unbelievable salesman. Iger is tired and is looking for a way out. He's quit once already, but got dragged back because of Chapek. I spoke with several folks in the C-suite Disney leadership a year ago about AI - Disney is learning and trying literally everything they can to capitalize on AI. Every division is experimenting, including ABC and ESPN. I…

You're being downvoted because people don't like the future you are painting :)

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think y'all are thinking about this wrong. Right now the deal is structured as Disney pays OpenAI. That's going to invert. Once OpenAI pays Disney $3B/yr for Elsa, Disney is going to go to Google and say, "Gee, it sure would suck if you lost all your Disney content." Google will have to pay $5B/yr for Star Wars. And then TikTok, and then Meta... door to door licensing. Nintendo, Marvel, all of the IP giants will st…

>Now that the creation/consumption funnel inverts or becomes combined, the IP holders can charge a shit ton of money to these platforms. Everyone is a creator, and IP enablement is a massive money making opportunity. This would be worrying if the content was 1) actually good or 2) not freely available. Trying to charge premiums for slop never works. Just ask McDonald's 2-3 years back. The damage to the Star Wars bran…

> This would be worrying if the content was 1) actually good or 2) not freely available.

The content is not freely available. You pay for it with ads or premium subscriptions. There is a massive amount of money being passed around behind the scenes.

When IP holders cut off Google's ability to host IP content, 50+% of YouTube immediately dies overnight.

Looking at the top videos on YouTube this week, 7 of the top 10 are all "Pop IP" content: Candy Crush the Movie, Miley Cyrus, "I wanna Channing All Over Your Tatum", Superman Drawn, Star Wars Elevator Prank, We are World of Warcraft, Red Bull.

People love and drown themselves in pop culture and corporate-owned IP. Whether that's music, games, anime - they love corporate-owned IP.

If this content gets pulled en masse, YouTube is fucked. YouTube has been getting all of this for free. That's something that could be done today, but it's just non-obvious. When you package that with the "creation enablement", it's a packaged good that can be licensed or sold enterprise-to-enterprise.

Disney is about to wet their toes. Nintendo has already been experimenting with it. The concept is right there in front of them, and as distribution channels and content creation merge into one uniform thing - it'll be obvious.

> The damage to the Star Wars brand shows this isn't a long term strategy.

To be clear, this was made by some of the top humans in their field. And despite massive critical panning, it did print money for Disney (perhaps at the cost of long term engagement/interest).

> The 2nd issue on animation slop is the human element.

It's the difficulty, cost, time, talent element.

People consume more human content because more human content is created. Orders of magnitude more. It's easy.

Vivienne Medrano, Glitch Productions, Jaiden Dittfach, and many others have minted huge franchises on YouTube - views, merch, Amazon/Netflix deals, etc. The problem is that it takes them ages to animate each episode, whereas filming yourself on your smartphone is quick, easy, accessible, affordable, low-effort, low-material, and low-personnel.

Kids on twitch are watching each other become anime girls and furries with VTuber tech. They're willingly becoming those things and building fantasy worlds bigger than their public face identities. We just haven't had the technology to enable it at a wide scale yet.

This is all changing.

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#387

buried the lede: > As part of the agreement, Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and receive warrants to purchase additional equity. I say this with no snark or disdain: Sam has mastered the art of the flywheel. Re licensed ai videos, if anyone wants to see the perspective the C-suites are being sold on, check out this episode of Belloni's The Town, in which they discuss the vision for AI + IP…

Did we forget about Enron? Or are we deliberately retconning it? Many such cases.

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#388

buried the lede: > As part of the agreement, Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and receive warrants to purchase additional equity. I say this with no snark or disdain: Sam has mastered the art of the flywheel. Re licensed ai videos, if anyone wants to see the perspective the C-suites are being sold on, check out this episode of Belloni's The Town, in which they discuss the vision for AI + IP…

Did we forget about Enron? Or are we deliberately retconning it? Many such cases.

Lmao your user name.

I like the phrase “vulture capital”

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#389
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they didn't get any money from the daycare and they will get money from OpenAI when you make your Sora video. That's all there is to it.

The brand rot will be disgusting here. I thought "family" companies like Nintendo and Disney hit so hard, against their best interests, because they didn't want the next pregnant Elsa or Nazi Mario to cause a storm on their carefully tailored brands. Seems like Nintendo still has that long term thinking. Disney was just waiting for the right price.

I mean, Disney can do basically whatever it wants and nothing will change. If my gay, Muslim friends are still willing to patronize the parks, despite their very real disagreement with how Disney conducts its business, then what hope is there for the exhausted, overworked mom whose child won't stop wailing about watching Frozen? This will absolutely tarnish the brand, and yet people will still consume Disney slop.

Re: The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Partner on Sora

#390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's what makes Disney investing in OpenAI as part of this so confusing to me. Sign a licensing deal that means OpenAI pays you every time someone uses your character? Absolutely. Who cares if they're burning cash, as long as you get your payday it's all good. But investing in the company means their cash burning is your problem too. I don't know why you'd do it.

The only explanation is if they think they can juice their stock by 2 billion and then whoever is on the ship jumps before the crash. Sounds like Iger has his finger on the eject button. How much stock has he announced to be cashing out over 2026?

It’s not that.

It’s ego and desperation for one last hurrah. Disney has a history of being a corporate governance nightmare - which Iger ironically contributed toward fixing. He’s undoing all that now.

Post reply on HN