Technologies

Disney’s $1B Deal With OpenAI Will Bring Iconic Characters to Sora AI Videos

You’ll be able to create videos with your favorites from Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and more. Certain clips will also be available to watch on Disney Plus.

Disney is bringing more than 200 of its biggest characters, from Marvel to Star Wars and Pixar, to OpenAI’s Sora AI social media app and AI images in a $1 billion equity investment deal, the companies announced on Thursday. That means Sora users will soon be able to generate AI videos featuring any of Disney’s included characters, with no fear of copyright infringement.

Sora is the sister app to ChatGPT. It’s an AI social media app, letting its users create and share AI-generated videos. Its popularity blew up right from its September launch, with the app reaching the No. 1 spot in the Apple and Google Play app stores at the height of its popularity this fall. AI models like Sora have been frequent targets of copyright infringement lawsuits, with copyright holders claiming AI companies are allowing their users to create unauthorized ultra-realistic versions of their protected characters. Disney is currently suing Midjourney AI for this, calling the AI firm «a bottomless pit of plagiarism.» With this new deal with OpenAI, Disney is giving OpenAI explicit permission for Sora to use its intellectual property. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

From what we know so far of the three-year licensing deal, Sora users will have access to over 200 «animated, masked and creature» characters from its most popular franchises beginning in early 2026. Marvel superheroes, Disney princesses and Star Wars icons will all be replicable in AI video clips. Environments (like the world of Encanto), costumes, props and vehicles are also included. Talent likeness — meaning the likenesses of real humans in Disney’s TV shows and movies — is not part of this deal, nor are voices. Theoretically, that means you could create an AI video of Steve Rogers, but it wouldn’t include Chris Evans’ voice.

Part of why the Sora app is so popular is its ability to create extremely realistic depictions of people, which drew a lot of concerns over its deepfake abilities. Celebrities and public figures have been outspoken about the potential harms. The estate of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., actor Bryan Cranston and actors union SAG-AFTRA have all reached out to OpenAI with concerns. Disney and OpenAI said in their statements that the companies «affirmed a shared commitment to maintaining robust controls» to prevent Sora users from creating illegal or harmful content. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the nature of those controls by the time of publication.

«The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works,» Disney CEO Bob Iger said in the press release.

The deal also makes Disney «a major customer» of OpenAI. Disney employees will have access to ChatGPT, and the entertainment company will use APIs to «build new products, tools and experiences.» Part of that deal will apply to Disney Plus, with the company saying its Disney Plus streaming subscribers will be able to watch select Sora AI videos on the Disney Plus app. Disney did not respond to a request for comment on other potential use cases for OpenAI’s technology by the time of publication.

For more, check out our guide to copyright and AI and the best AI video generators.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

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Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

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The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 24, #1649

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 24, No. 1,649.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky, with a double letter that could confuse players. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.