AI is a fraught topic in Hollywood, but Disney CEO Bob Iger is bullish on using the tech to soup up the Disney+ experience.
On the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Iger made extensive comments about the potential he sees for AI to enhance Disney’s direct-to-consumer strategy.
Specifically, he said he’s excited about using AI to make the Disney+ app stickier, including allowing users to create short-form content.
AI is going 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,” Iger said during the Q&A portion of the earnings call.
He also said users could expect Disney+ to become more of an engine to promote the company’s theme parks and games (following the company’s investment in Epic Games last year).
The comments demonstrate how Disney — like other Hollywood players — is looking for new ways for people to interact with its platforms and brands amid the growing popularity of user-generated content platforms and independent creators.
AI isn’t all roses for Disney. The company has been wary of the tech’s risk to its IP. In June, Disney, along with Comcast’s NBCUniversal studio unit, sued AI company Midjourney, claiming its tech created unauthorized copies of works ranging from Star Wars to The Simpsons. Midjourney denied the claims in its legal response. The suit is ongoing.
In some of Iger’s most wide-ranging public comments on AI to date, he went on to say that he sees ways to use AI to drive efficiency in the production process and across the company, as well as to collect and mine data.
He also shared that the company was having extensive conversations with AI companies to protect its IP as well as create more engagement with consumers. He didn’t cite any companies by name, but Fable Studios, a startup that has an AI streaming platform that lets users make their own shows and play with existing IP, has said it’s been in talks with Disney, among others.
“I’m hopeful that ultimately we’ll be able to reach some agreement, either the industry or the company on its own, with some of these entities that would in fact reflect our need to protect the IP,” Iger said.
