Disney and Adobe are building custom AI tools for the entertainment company's productions. The multi-year partnership was announced at Adobe's MAX conference.
Under the deal, Disney gets early access to new Adobe technology for its theme parks, cruise line, and ESPN content. Adobe says it will use Adobe Firefly Foundry to build custom models tailored to Disney's brands. According to the report, those models will be trained on knowledge of Disney characters, environments, and visual styles to produce commercially safe, production-ready output.
Disney's Imagineering research division already uses Firefly for theme park development. Adobe will also expand internal creative workflows at Walt Disney Studios. The report says the Walt Disney Studios' StudioLAB and ESPN's innovation hub, ESPN Edge, are part of the deal. There, AI is meant to boost fan engagement for sports content and unlock new uses for ESPN's archive.
The report also notes that Disney previously struck a deal with OpenAI and then walked away from it. It says Disney was involved in the bankruptcy of Character.AI. Citing Bloomberg, the report says Disney is planning to cut thousands of jobs and trim costs by 20 percent