Disney and Adobe struck a multi-year deal on 9 November to develop private generative AI models for Disney’s parks, studios and sports business, Reuters reported. Announced that day, the partnership will begin with project development at Disney Experiences, which includes theme parks, resorts and cruise lines, and concept exploration at StudioLAB, the innovation hub within Walt Disney Studios.
Key points
- Adobe and Disney plan to train custom models on Disney intellectual property through Firefly Foundry.
- Walt Disney Imagineering has deployed image-generation and sketch-to-image models for concept work.
- The partnership also covers ESPN fan engagement and access to its content archive.
- Disney is considering job cuts, Bloomberg News reported earlier in November.
Firefly Foundry will use Disney intellectual property
The companies will use Adobe’s Firefly Foundry, an enterprise platform for building and deploying custom AI models, to develop models trained on Disney intellectual property. The planned models will be private and proprietary to Disney. Reuters reported that the companies intend them to generate outputs ready for production.
The work spans two parts of Disney with different creative tasks. Disney Experiences will use the partnership to speed up project development. At StudioLAB, the planned use is concept exploration for Walt Disney Studios. Both sit within the broader agreement to develop models for Disney rather than use a general-purpose model unchanged.
Those initial uses place Adobe’s tools inside Disney’s own creative process. The work at Disney Experiences concerns the development of projects across a division that houses its global parks, resorts and cruise lines. StudioLAB’s work concerns concepts within the studio. The partnership also reaches ESPN, where Adobe will work with Disney on tools for sports audiences.
Disney Imagineering has deployed two image models
Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative, design and research and development arm of Disney Experiences, has already deployed a custom image-generation model and a sketch-to-image model. The latter converts hand-drawn sketches into rendered concept art. Their deployment gives the partnership an existing operational use alongside the models the companies plan to develop.
Kyle Laughlin, Disney’s senior vice president of R&D technology and engineering, said the tools allow creative work that previously took months to be done in hours or days. He described Imagineering projects as taking years to develop. His account concerned the time spent on the creative process within those longer projects.
Laughlin said Imagineering teams can make several iterations quickly with the tools. In his account, that faster work helps reduce costly changes after construction begins on an experience. He also said the tools would accelerate creative development at Disney and were “in no way meant to replace” Imagineering roles.
Adobe plans ESPN fan engagement tools
Adobe will also work with Disney on AI tools intended to increase engagement among ESPN’s sports fans. Another aim is to bring more material from ESPN’s archive to audiences. That work puts the partnership in Disney’s sports media business as well as its parks and studio operations.
The ESPN plans concern audience-facing uses, while the initial Disney Experiences and StudioLAB work concerns creative development. At Imagineering, Laughlin’s account centres on iteration and changes during construction. The agreement therefore covers different tasks across the businesses named in the announcement, with the deployed Imagineering models providing the existing example of use.
Disney was considering cutting thousands of jobs, Bloomberg News reported earlier in November. The company had also asked some managers to target 20 per cent in annual cost savings, Bloomberg News reported.
