The idea of letting AI create our films, games, and music has been a hot topic for a long time. AI can undoubtedly do most of those things, but everything it has learned is based on what others have created, and many believe that it is therefore incapable of doing new and inventive things - but rather, in the long run, only modifying the work of others.
That's why there's a lot of skepticism about so-called generative AI, but one company that doesn't seem particularly opposed to it is Disney. They're currently exploring how they can use it in a variety of ways, and in their latest quarterly report (thanks, The Hollywood Reporter), we learn that this includes letting users create their own Disney content and share it with others. CEO Bob Iger explains the thinking behind this:
"The other thing that we're really excited about, that AI is going to give us the ability to do, is to provide users of Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content — mostly short-form — from others."
Disney is known for fiercely protecting all its brands and rarely allowing others to use them. But as long as we do it on their platform, they have no problem with people coming up with all sorts of things using their brands.
It seems likely that we can look forward to a future where social media is flooded with videos featuring Donald Duck, the Toy Story crew, and Wreck-It Ralph being overused to death while they wreak havoc in videos that the creators themselves think are the funniest thing since sliced bread.