Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will bring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Luke Skywalker to the AI company's Sora video generation tool, in a licensing deal that the two companies announced on Thursday.
At the same time, Disney went after Google, demanding the tech company stop exploiting its copyrighted characters to train its AI systems.
The OpenAI agreement makes the Walt Disney Co. the first major content licensing partner for Sora, which uses generative artificial intelligence to create short videos.
Under the three-year licensing deal, fans will be able to use Sora to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.
AI video generators like Sora have wowed with their ability to quickly create realistic clips based merely on text prompts. But a flood of such videos on social media, including clips depicting celebrities and deceased public figures, has raised worries about “AI slop” crowding out human-created work alongside concerns about misinformation, deepfakes and copyright.
Disney and OpenAI said they are committed to responsible use of AI that protects the safety of users and the rights of creators.
“This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly to promote innovation that benefits society, respect the importance of creativity, and help works reach vast new audiences,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.
Disney CEO Robert Iger said the deal will “extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works.”
As part of the deal, some user-generated Sora videos will be made available on the Disney+ streaming service.
Disney will also become a “major customer” of OpenAI and use its technology to build new products, tools, and services. It will also roll out ChatGPT for employees.
Children's advocates, however criticized the move. Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, said Disney's decision to partner with OpenAI “is a betrayal of countless children around the world who adore Mickey Mouse, Frozen, and Toy Story. OpenAI claims children are prohibited from using Sora, yet here they are luring young kids to their platform using some of their favorite characters.” Disney, he added, is "aiding and abetting OpenAI’s efforts to addict young children to its unsafe platform and products.”
Also Thursday, Disney sent Google a cease and desist letter, demanding that the tech company stop using Disney content without permission to feed and train its AI models, including its Veo video generator and Imagen and Nano Banana image generators.
It has previously issued similar cease and desist letters to Meta and Character.AI and has filed litigation with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery against AI image generator Midjourney and AI company Minimax.
“Well, we have been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we have gone after other companies that have not honored our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that," Iger said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street. "We have been in conversation with Google, basically expressing our concerns about this. And, ultimately, because we didn’t really make any progress, the conversations didn’t bear fruit, we felt we had no choice but to send them a cease-and-desist.”
Disney accused Google of “infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale,” according to a copy of the letter dated Dec. 10 seen by The Associated Press. The letter included examples that it says Google's AI systems easily generated, such as characters from Star Wars, The Simpsons, Deadpool and The Lion King.
Google has also been “intentionally amplifying” the problem by making the infringing content available across its many channels including YouTube, Disney said.
Disney said Google hasn't taken any measures to mitigate the problem even though it has been raising the concerns for months. “Google’s mass infringement of Disney’s copyrighted works must stop,” the letter said.
Google did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
FILE - The Disney logo is seen on their store along the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris on Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
FILE - Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, testifies before a Senate committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - The OpenAI logo is seen displayed on a cell phone in front of an image on a computer screen generated by ChatGPT's Dall-E text-to-image model, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, file)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s president was traveling to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks with officials who have been mediating negotiations between Tehran and Washington on a permanent end to the war in the Middle East even as discrepancies were emerging on what had been agreed so far.
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams were working on details of the deal, following high-level negotiations in Switzerland on Monday led by US Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
In Tehran, Iran's capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters that no visits have been scheduled for the U.N. watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — to see Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the United States last year. Vance had previously said the negotiations in Switzerland won an agreement for IAEA to inspect the sites.
The IAEA has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in 2025, but has not been granted access to the bombed enrichment sites targeted by the U.S. in that war.
Security was tight in the area of Islamabad where the Iranian president was to meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. It's Pezeshkian's first visit since the conflict started with the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran on Feb. 28.
Pezeshkian and Sharif were to hold joint news conference after their discussions.
In the initial talks, marking the start of a 60-day diplomatic process that seeks to reach a permanent deal to end the Iran war, Iran and the U.S. agreed to create a “de-confliction cell” to address the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia group. The U.S. said negotiators also discussed “mechanisms” to ensure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the transit of oil that Iran had effectively blocked during the war, remains open.
Ahead of his meetings in Pakistan, Pezeshkian cautioned that “the effectiveness of the talks depends on full commitment to the agreed obligations and their precise implementation.”
“Progress on this path will be measured by practical adherence to accepted responsibilities,” he wrote on X. “Statements outside the agreed text do not help advance the negotiations.”
Iran suggested the ongoing technical talks in Switzerland have led to the creation of specific negotiation groups, which include those focused on sanctions relief, nuclear issues, reconstruction and monitoring, according to a the state-run IRNA news agency.
The report quoted Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister leading the technical talks, saying that the countries involved also formed a contact mechanism over ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz and over the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.
It remains unclear whether the de-confliction cell being created will be enough to stop fighting between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel, which occupies part of Lebanon and insists it must maintain a free hand to attack militants launching attacks into northern Israel.
Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the cell would include the Lebanese government and would “ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon,” but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised new questions late on Monday, saying his military still has “full freedom of action to thwart any direct or emerging threat to them or to the residents of the north.”
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are signatories to the U.S.-Iran deal, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep his forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing.
U.S. President Donald Trump later said “we’re going to take a look at it,” when asked about Netanyahu’s comments, adding that he wouldn’t say what action he would take but that the situation would “get solved.”
“I’m a problem solver, I get problems solved real fast, including with Bibi,” he said, using a nickname for Netanyahu.
At the moment, the renewed ceasefire in Lebanon, brokered on Saturday, appears to be holding with no new Israeli or Hezbollah strikes reported overnight.
Lebanon and Israel planned another round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday, which are expected to focus on developing a plan for an Israeli withdrawal.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
A man walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Vehicles drives past welcoming billboards featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, center, and Shehbaz Sharif alongside an overhead bridge in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
A man walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, center, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, right, and Shehbaz Sharif along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
The welcoming billboard, featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, center, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is displayed alongside of an overhead bridge, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
A woman walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
