The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has expressed fear that Disney’s recent licensing deal with OpenAI will sanction the “theft of our work.”
The union strongly criticized the recent Disney deal with OpenAI in a message to union members on Thursday.
“Disney’s announcement with OpenAI appears 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,” the union said, adding it will meet with the studio “to probe the terms of this deal, including the extent to which user-generated videos use the work of WGA members. We will continue to fight to protect our members’ creative and economic interests in the context of AI technology.”
As noted by Variety, the three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI’s Sora will allow users to generated prompted “videos from a set of more than 200 masked, animated or creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. Sora and ChatGPT Images are expected to start generating ‘fan-inspired’ videos with Disney’s licensed characters in early 2026.”
Disney also pledged to make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI as part of the deal. The deal does not include the use of any actors’ likeness, talent, or voices, which would need individual deals.
“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. We have repeatedly called for the studios to take legal action to defend the valuable intellectual property we help to create,” the WGA said in its statement.
An OpenAI rep called the Disney deal “a landmark agreement because it shows how AI companies and the creative industry can work together to establish meaningful standards for responsible AI in entertainment.”
SAG-AFTRA, the actor’s union, said it will “closely monitor” the situation.
“SAG-AFTRA will closely monitor the deal and its implementation to ensure compliance with our contracts and with applicable laws protecting image, voice and likeness,” the union said. “SAG-AFTRA members are very focused on the rapidly expanding use of intellectual property and individuals’ likenesses and voices by generative AI tools, and SAG-AFTRA remains vigilant about any such uses.”
“We acknowledge Disney’s and OpenAI’s independent outreaches to us on this matter and their assurances that they will meet their contractual and legal obligations to performers and continue to implement systems to ensure ethical and responsible use of this technology,” it added.
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