Google courts Disney, Universal, WBD to license IP for AI

Google executives have approached Disney, Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery and other studios about licensing intellectual property for AI models, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing people not authorized to speak publicly. No agreements have closed.

YouTube, meanwhile, has approached talent agencies and studios about a likeness-detection tool that would flag AI-generated content infringing on copyrighted material or altering celebrity faces. According to the paper, "some companies were asked to waive their right to sue Google if they were to participate in the likeness detection technology." No major studio has notified SAG-AFTRA of an AI licensing deal, which the union contract requires.

The money on the table, per one person familiar with the discussions, is "$40 million per character on average, with a deal for 100 characters in the multiple billions." Google has already put roughly $75 million into A24 and holds a partnership with director Darren Aronofsky's Primordial Soup. On the labor side, some sidelined Hollywood creatives are already training AI models for pay.

Rob Rosenberg, a partner at Moses & Singer and former general counsel of Showtime Networks, told the LA Times that Google is "in this image rehabilitation, this path of trying to gain not just acceptance but appreciation for the fact that they're trying to take the high road. They're trying to spark a partnership between Hollywood and themselves as an AI platform." Jonathan Miller, CEO of Integrated Media and a former News Corp. executive, framed it less kindly: "What Google did with YouTube is it let it run completely wild until it was too big to fail and everybody had to make a deal with it at some point." In 2007, Viacom sued Google for $1 billion, alleging copyright infringement over YouTube; the case settled in 2014.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA's national executive director and chief negotiator, said "the companies largely are moving carefully in this area. They rightly recognize that there are a lot of potential pitfalls, not only relating to creative talent and their rights and performances or other types of creation."

Representatives of Google, Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney declined to comment.