Disney and OpenAI have made a surprise deal - what happens next? Disney's famous Mickey Mouse character will soon be available for use in AI-generated videos The world's best-known AI company and the world's best-known entertainment firm have come to a surprise agreement to allow AI versions of some of the most iconic characters in film, TV and cartoons to be used in generative AI videos and images. Social media is dead - here's what comes next The Walt Disney Company has signed a deal with OpenAI that will allow the AI firm's Sora video generation tool and ChatGPT image creator to use more than 200 of Disney's most iconic characters. Meanwhile, Disney remains in dispute with another AI firm, Midjourney, over alleged infringement of their intellectual property (IP), claiming Midjourney aims to "blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's and Universal's famous characters" into their image generating tool. The characters now deemed fair game for OpenAI users include the likes of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Simba and Mufasa from and Moana, as well as Marvel and Lucasfilm characters, including some of's most well-known names.

The macaques were status symbols all the way from India. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Elites in Ancient Rome went to great lengths to advertise their status and wealth. Based on recent archaeological excavations in Egypt, at least some high-ranking military officials even showed off with their choice of pets. In the, researchers at Poland's University of Warsaw described a nearly 2,000-year-old animal cemetery in the Egyptian port city of Berenike that includes the remains of multiple macaque monkeys .

Disney is hedging against the future. OpenAI is clearing a path for Sora. And together they've made a blueprint for how AI and Hollywood can move forward. On Thursday, Disney and OpenAI announced a deal that might have seemed unthinkable not so long ago. Starting next year, OpenAI will be able to use Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Ariel, and Yoda in its Sora video-generation model .

Adobe has launched special versions of Photoshop, Express, and Acrobat that integrate directly with ChatGPT for streamlined creative workflows. PCWorld reports these integrations allow users to edit images, create designs, and manage PDFs within the chatbot interface across desktop, web, and iOS platforms. The tools enable tasks like background blurring, brightness adjustments, PDF conversion, and design creation using Adobe's extensive creative libraries through conversational commands. Adobe has launched special versions of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Express and Adobe Acrobat for ChatGPT . This gives users access to a wide range of features directly in the popular chatbot at no cost, including image editing and the ability to convert text to PDF files. Here's how Adobe described the new ChatGPT integration: Accessing Adobe's apps in ChatGPT is as simple as typing the name of the app followed by an instruction. For example, to blur the background of an image with Photoshop, users can type: "Adobe Photoshop, help me blur the background of this image." ChatGPT then automatically surfaces the app and uses contextual understanding to guide the user through the action. To learn more about how to get started with Adobe apps for ChatGPT, read here .

A cease-and-desist letter accuses the search giant's AI tools of training on and copying protected works. The letter includes examples of images from several Disney properties including Deadpool, Moana, Star Wars and others, reproduced by Google's AI tools. Disney is demanding that Google implement guardrails within all its AI products to prevent further infringement. Today Disney with OpenAI to license its characters for use in Sora, OpenAI's video generator. The deal will see Disney invest $1 billion in OpenAI (a paltry sum by), with the option to purchase additional equity at a later date.

CES 2026 preview: What to expect from tech's biggest conference in January Expect big announcements from the likes of Samsung, Sony, NVIDIA and many more. CES doesn't start until January, but whispers of the products and announcements that could be in store for tech's biggest annual conference have already started to take shape. The CES 2026 show floor is officially open from January 6 through 9, although the show kicks off with events on Sunday January 4 and a host of press conferences on Monday. As always, product demos, announcements and networking will be happening at the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels all over the city. As usual, Engadget will be covering the event in-person and remotely, bringing you news and hands-ons straight from the show floor.

Disney has agreed to invest $1bn (£740m) in OpenAI as part of a deal which will let people use many of its iconic characters in the chatbot ChatGPT and video-generation tool Sora. It is the first major studio to license parts of its catalogue to the tech giant, in a move which could have major implications for the studio's future plans. It means fans will be able to generate and share pictures and videos of more than 200 characters from Disney's franchises, including Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. The move comes as OpenAI faces mounting questions about how its rapidly advancing tech is used - and as anxiety in Hollywood increases over the impact of AI on the creative industries. According to a blog post announcing the news, the list of eligible characters include those from Disney films Zootopia, Moana and Encanto - as well as characters like Star Wars' Luke Skywalker and Marvel's Deadpool.

The 300-person startup hopes bringing designers aboard will give it an edge in an increasingly competitive AI software market. Cursor, the wildly popular AI coding startup, is launching a new feature that lets people design the look and feel of web applications with AI. The tool, Visual Editor, is essentially a vibe-coding product for designers, giving them access to the same fine-grained controls they'd expect from professional design software. But in addition to making changes manually, the tool lets them request edits from Cursor's AI agent using natural language. Cursor is best known for its AI coding platform, but with Visual Editor, the startup wants to capture other parts of the software creation process.

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GPU prices could follow RAM's big rise It looks like Disney wasted no time delivering on CEO Bob Iger's promise to bring AI-generated content to Disney+. On Thursday, the company announced the start of a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI to bring more than 200 of its beloved characters, including those from Star Wars and Pixar, to the Sora app and ChatGPT. With the deal in place, OpenAI users will be able to prompt ChatGPT to generate images that tap into Disney's intellectual property, with costumes, props, vehicles and environments covered. The agreement does not include voices or "talent likenesses," meaning Sora users won't be able prompt the app to make a video with Black Widow and get something with Scarlett Johansson in it. Instead, both Sora and ChatGPT will only have access to animated and illustrated versions of Marvel and Star Wars characters like Black Panther, Captain America, Han Solo, Darth Vader and others.