Disney's SoraAI Fiasco

I wasn’t a fan of Disney’s SoraAI deal. I know they’re a mega-corporate entity, and merchandise is part of why, but using consumer-driven slop for profit feels cheap. After all, they’re not a person! And there isn’t an equal relationship here! Why implement it at all?

Well, they didn’t. As you’ve no doubt heard, Disney cancelled their partnership with SoraAI. Not temporarily, not for an undisclosed period, permanently. I’d quip about Disney and an open flame, but that’s too on-the-nose. Especially since they knew the risks well in advance. It’s not like A.I. started being an issue yesterday.

Let’s get something clear (again): I’m not anti-A.I. It has its place, and it can be beneficial in specific instances. However, like with automation, there needs to be a balance. It should coexist alongside people, and it can’t make humans obsolete. Unfortunately, generative A.I. programs, like SoraAI, are doing that. And given the energy they use to operate, as well as the environmental costs, they’re not a wise investment.

I know I’ll get push-back for saying that. Somehow, some A.I. enthusiast will read this, get annoyed and try persuading me that I’m wrong. It happened when I bashed NFTs too. I don’t care. If you’re convinced human labour’s worthless next to generative A.I., there’s a good chance I can’t persuade you otherwise. You can argue with my hand if you disagree.

Circling back to SoraAI, it’s especially egregious because this was clearly a vanity project for Disney. They don’t need A.I. to sell their IPs. All they really need are young girls who want to be princesses and adults who haven’t grown up emotionally. It’s worked for decades, and they have no reason to abandon that. “Giving the tools” to “make art”, whatever that means, via generative A.I. isn’t the slam dunk they think it is.

Also, generative A.I. “art” isn’t art. At all. Ignoring its ugliness, and let’s not kid ourselves, art requires introspective thought to function. Art, to put it bluntly, communicates a thought, idea or emotion, something A.I., which can’t operate independently of its programming, can’t replicate. We’ve seen that with the plagiarism that it’s been guilty of, as well as the SCOTUS ruling on A.I. and copyright.

Besides, I doubt Disney was prepared for the legal can of worms they’d opened up. And if they were, I don’t think it’d be worth the fees. Remember, Disney’s incredibly protective of their IP, practically anal. They’re why American copyright laws are so strict, and they’ve gone after small fries for using their work without permission before. If partnering with SoraAI was going to involve what they claimed, which is user-generated art, it’d create a conflict of interest I’m not sure they’re ready for.

On the consumer’s end, I don’t think creators were ready either. Disney’s promise was to give them tools to promote their brand, but would they go through with that? Was ownership possible? And who’s to say perverts wouldn’t use their tools to create inappropriate prompts? Disney’s a family-friendly company, but a quick search of fan-art online will yield plenty of raunchy material. People are that horny.

With all this in mind, it’s no wonder Disney got cold feet and pulled the plug on SoraAI. It’s possible I’m overlooking the SoraAI side, as there were issues there too, but since Disney’s more public facing…you get the idea. Besides, partnering with a generative A.I. program, I’m sorry to say, is beneath them. It’s also demeaning to their animators, many of whom can produce better work than a machine. It might take longer, but no one said manpower was fast or easy.

I also don’t want the human element erased. People have been around for longer than A.I., and they’ve produced plenty of great art without it. That’s not changing anytime soon, and A.I. needs to adapt, not the other way around. If it won’t disappear, then it needs to become secondary to human labour, not an alternative. I wish A.I. enthusiasts understood that.

As a final note, A.I. enthusiasts need to not call human labour “obsolete”. I see this all the time on LinkedIn, with A.I. adopters promoting it like it’s the next hot commodity. It’s not. It’s a tool that’s abused to frequently disastrous effect, and it’s raising ethical concerns that shouldn’t exist. It’s also starting to fail financially and socially, as we’ve seen with the scandals that’ve arisen lately. That’s worrying.

I don’t know what’ll happen with generative apps like SoraAI. We can pray they’ll crash and burn, so as to teach tech oligarchs a lesson, but for every failed app, another one will take its place. The only viable solution, in my mind, is regulation. Because we’ve seen what out-of-control A.I. does. Rest assured it’s not pleasant.

So yes, I’m not upset that SoraAI and Disney didn’t end up with a successful partnership, and you shouldn’t be either. Because we can do a lot better, and it’s a shame that we had to find this out the hard way.