Disney just announced it will use more AI behind the scenes, thanks to Adobe — here’s how it will affect their theme parks, creative studios and sports media businesses
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You’re not crazy for thinking, “Hasn’t Disney already done AI stuff?” after reading my headline.
In December of last year, the global mass media and entertainment corporation announced a partnership with OpenAI that would let users play around with Sora’s generative AI features to generate short-form videos and images. Those pieces of content were set to incorporate over 200 characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. However, that deal ended a lot faster than everyone anticipated when it was called off in March of this year.
Even with that development, Disney isn’t done trying its hand at injecting AI into its everyday operations. Now they’re working alongside Adobe in a newly announced multiyear partnership that’s set to expand Disney’s usage of AI tools.
Here’s how that new collaboration will alter Disney’s creative ventures and businesses.
In an official press release released by Adobe, the multinational computer software company announced the strategic alliance it has now entered into with The Walt Disney Company.
In a bid to “advance creativity, innovation and the art of storytelling through new technologies and experiences,” both companies will use the Adobe Firefly Foundry proprietary AI model to develop models that are specifically tailored to Disney’s animated characters, environments and visual styles.
Both companies promise that those custom models will be trained on those three previously mentioned aspects of Disney, while still generating commercially safe and production-ready outputs that should speed up animators’ workflows and allow for the expanded development of more creative endeavors.
Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, which is largely responsible for working on the company’s theme park development, is already using Adobe Firefly Foundry. Their efforts are geared towards using a sketch-to-image model that transforms hand-drawn ideas into fully rendered 2D concept art. They’ve also begun using a custom image model that produces the sort of assets that are on-brand and consistent with Disney franchises.
Adobe and Disney’s AI-themed joint efforts will also affect StudioLAB (Disney’s innovation and technology hub, located in Burbank, California) and the ESPN Edge Innovation Center. Adobe has become a StudioLAB Innovation Partner and will work with its creatives and technologists to observe and expand internal creative workflows. On the sports side of the equation, Adobe and ESPN will work side by side to find the best ways to use AI to enhance fan engagement, how they deliver content and to utilize more of ESPN’s archival content.
In the midst of this announcement comes some less-than-inspiring news, however. More layoffs are reportedly coming at Disney, with some areas aiming to cut costs by up to 20% in the process. These expected layoffs may impact Disney theme parks, Disney Cruise Line, movie studios, television, and technology, but not all evenly.
What makes this latest round of Disney job cuts especially disheartening is the fact that it will be the fifth round of layoffs since Josh D’Amaro took over as the company’s CEO after replacing Bob Iger in March. Those previous layoffs have targeted Disney’s marketing, National Geographic, Pixar, ESPN, technology, human resources/relations and Walt Disney Imagineering departments.
Disney is going big again on AI and looking to expand the technology’s role in improving different portions of its creative business. With a focus on empowering the use of internal creative tools and experimenting with new AI technologies that could benefit them down the line, Disney sounds like it’s planning to stay in this partnership a lot longer than it did with the one with OpenAI. But with even more layoffs looming, it’s hard to get all the excited about the news of Disney tapping into more AI while letting go of the humans that help keep its myriad core businesses running smoothly.