Disney and OpenAI: The Smartest Deal of the Year

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone criticizes Disney for their deal with OpenAI.

I believe it is the smartest move of the year.

Yes, they invested $1 billion.
Yes, they “handed over” Mickey, Darth Vader, and 200 characters to Sora.
Yes, artists are furious.

But let us review the facts:

1. The Train Already Left the Station
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People were already generating content with Disney characters in AI tools before the deal: without permission, without control, without a penny for Disney.

The alternative? Sue. As they did with Google recently, accusing them of infringing copyright “at massive scale” with Veo and Nano Banana.

The result of suing in tech? Ask yourself how it went for the music industry against Napster.

2. Monetize Over Litigate
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Disney did not sell their characters. They licensed them. For 3 years.

With controls.
Without actor voices.
Without training models on their IP.
With curated content that they choose for Disney+.
And in the process, they became shareholders in a company valued at $500 billion.

3. The Real Game Is Distribution
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Gen Z and Gen Alpha do not go to the movies. They do not watch linear TV. They live on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and now – Sora.

Disney reported $23.62 billion in Q2 2025 revenue, +7% YoY. They have 3 of the 5 highest-grossing films of the year.

ChatGPT has 800 million weekly users and was the number 1 downloaded app in the US in 2025. That is the audience Disney just reached.

Disney just bought a seat at the table where the next generation’s content consumption is decided. Bob Iger is not selling Disney’s past – he is buying its future.

AI Slop: Digital Noise at Planetary Scale

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

You may not have heard of AI Slop, but you have almost certainly started to notice it.

Every day, millions of texts and images are generated with AI – without oversight, without purpose, without criteria.

“AI Slop” is the byproduct of indiscriminate use of generative models:

Empty documents filled with buzzwords
Images without visual context or aesthetic intention
Content that appears intelligent but lacks comprehension

Hard data: more than 80% of AI-generated content published online shows signs of low quality or semantic duplicity (source: Originality.ai, 2024 AI Content Detection Benchmark).

The result: digital noise at planetary scale. An ocean of content that trains future models to be even more mediocre.

If we do not draw technical, ethical, and operational boundaries today, the future of AI will be a mirror of our worst practices: cheap, immediate, saturated, and sterile.

Because generating content with AI is easy. Doing it well is engineering, or art, or even both.

Content on Carles Abarca

Disney and OpenAI: The Smartest Deal of the Year

1. The Train Already Left the Station #

2. Monetize Over Litigate #

3. The Real Game Is Distribution #

AI Slop: Digital Noise at Planetary Scale

1. The Train Already Left the Station
#

2. Monetize Over Litigate
#

3. The Real Game Is Distribution
#