Adobe and Disney have made a multi-year deal to co-develop an AI model for their services.
Tech and media giants Disney and Adobe are teaming up to develop their own tailor made generative AI model.
The co-developed model will look to support the scaling of AI tools across Disney’s sports media business, as well as its studio and theme parks.
In partnership with Adobe, Disney will use the AI tools to boost engagement with its sports audiences and deliver more of ESPN’s content archive to its viewers.
This will be developed using Adobe’s cloud-based generative AI platform, Firefly Foundry, which lets businesses build, tweak, and deploy AI models trained directly on a brand’s own intellectual property.
As such, Disney and ESPN content will be used to generate and production-ready output. This could include tailoring fan experiences, using an extensive history of branded content to create brand-safe and targeted promotional content.
Kyle Laughlin, senior vice president of research, development, technology and engineering at Disney, told Reuters in an interview: “We talk about the time frames in our projects in years — it’s years’ worth of development. And what Adobe Foundry has allowed us to do is compress the creative process that would have taken months to now being able to do that in hours and days.”
Laughlin added that the tools will help accelerate creative development at Disney and are “in no way meant to replace” roles at Imagineering: “We’re able to run through multiple iterations quickly with these tools. And that helps us reduce costly changes in the field once we get into the construction of these experiences.”
This is an important move for Firefly Foundry. A successful partnership with Disney would show other sports broadcasts, studios, leagues, and entertainment groups that the AI model is effective and can be deployed safely.
Disney’s intellectual property is incredibly valuable, and its brand image is important to its appeal. If the AI models, which are trained on Disney’s own content, can operate and deploy generated content safely, then other IP-heavy firms may follow suit.
