By Tasnim Oyshi
Staff Writer
Disney recently held a conference call to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2025 on Nov. 13. In attendance was CEO Bob Iger, who spoke about the content that Disney+ will be providing to its users in the future. He explained how Disney was trying to make the app more interactive and one of the ways they would soon be doing that is with generative AI.
“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,” Iger said during the call. “Including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user-generated content, mostly short form, from others.”
This essentially means that subscribers to Disney+ would be able to make their own short productions with AI technology, based on the shows and movies that are currently available on the platform. This raises questions about intellectual property rights, which Iger addressed.
According to an article by the Hollywood Reporter, the company has been in contact with unnamed AI companies. Although his goal is to protect the intellectual property of the company, he stated that there had been “productive conversations.”
This news has sent the internet into an uproar, with many calling for people to boycott Disney. The company has experienced several boycotts in the past, with the most recent one being about the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show in September, according to NBC. Even one of their previous showrunners has joined the conversation against the corporation.
Dana Terrace, the creator of Disney’s “Owl House,” posted on X about her grievances with AI content, according to Deadline. “Unsubscribe from Disney+. Pirate Owl House. I don’t care. F--- gen AI,” she wrote in one of the several posts she made about the situation. In another post, she explained how customers will basically be paying Disney to own the content they come up with using AI.
Terrace has been outspoken about her dislike of the company in the past. According to Cartoon Brew, she had previously talked about how Disney tried to stop her from including LGBTQ+ representation in her series in a now deleted post on X. She is now among the many on the social media platform that are criticizing Iger’s decision, according to Forbes.
Disney’s push towards this initiative is a result of streaming platforms such as Netflix trying to find new ways to connect with young consumers of media. As stated by NPR, “Younger audiences, especially Gen Z, are gravitating toward spaces where they can participate, remix and respond rather than simply watch.”
This is reflected in the games that Netflix has been offering on their app for the past couple of years. Iger stated in the conference call that games were another activity that Disney was looking to introduce to the Disney+ app.
The timeline for when this will be available has not been revealed yet. However, there is already intense backlash against the idea of bringing AI content into the app. As of now, it is unclear how Disney will proceed in their attempts to collaborate with AI companies.
