In the category of “Wow That Didn’t Take Long,” Disney critics have already started to pounce, less than 24 hours after it was announced that the company would be joining forces with OpenAI on a $1 billion licensing deal that would allow Disney characters to be used on the platform. Unions representing actors and writers, as well as environmentalists, have already criticized Disney for its new deal.
The Writers Guild of America issued a scathing statement against the deal, calling out OpenAI’s “theft” of their work online. “Disney’s deal with OpenAI appearss to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs. Companies, including OpenAI, have stolen vast libraries of works owned by the studios and created by WGA members and Hollywood labor to train their artificial intelligence systems,” the union said. “We have repeatedly called for the studios to take legal action to defend the valuable intellectual property we help to create. Disney’s cease-and-desist letter to Google recognizes this and we will continue to pressure the companies to take action.”
The WGA’s statement references a letter Disney’s lawyers sent to Google on the very same day the deal with OpenAI was announced, claiming that the company was using Disney’s works to train its own generative AI models without compensating Disney, the very same thing that the WGA is accusing OpenAI of doing.
SAG-AFTRA also released a statement saying that tech companies have not been doing enough, despite repeated warnings, to protect the images and voices of its members, also citing Disney’s letter to Google as proof of these issues.
While actors and writers are concerned about their creations, environmentalists are calling out Disney’s hypocrisy for entering into a deal with OpenAI without considering the environmental impacts of AI, despite promoting ecological protection at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
AI’s environmental impact stems from massive energy/water use for training complex models, huge data centers, and resource-intensive hardware (GPUs), leading to significant carbon emissions and electronic waste, with growing demand projected to strain resources further unless efficiency improves. The lifecycle—from mining materials to powering servers and disposal—consumes water, minerals, and electricity, resulting in a substantial environmental footprint through increased resource consumption, e-waste generation, and reliance on fossil fuels.
Data centers alone are expected to account for six percent of the United States’ total energy usage by the end of next year, with that number expected to double by the end of 2028.
As more groups get a look at Disney’s latest foray into AI, it seems the less they like it.
What do you think of Disney’s leap into the world of AI? Let us know in the comments.
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