As AI Turns Media on Its Head, the Curators Win
AI is pushing the cost of making new content toward zero. The entertainment companies that help people sort through the flood stand to gain the most.
On December 11, 2025, Disney struck a deal with OpenAI to license over 200 characters for their AI video app, Sora, and invest a billion dollars into the company. However, just three weeks later, on March 23, 2026, OpenAI announced it would be shutting down Sora. The news came roughly 30 minutes after the two companies had finished a meeting to discuss the partnership.
Disney walked away from the deal without exchanging any money. This incident highlights the rapid and unpredictable nature of AI partnerships. AI is already making significant inroads into the production industry, cutting costs by as much as 40% on visual effects and post-production. This is a major expense for big-budget productions, directly affecting the livelihoods of those in the visual effects field.
Netflix has already demonstrated the benefits of generative AI, using it to produce 17 minutes of their docuseries, "The American Experiment," twice as quickly and at half the cost.
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