“PICK UP A PENCIL OR DIE”: Disney+ creator urges fans to unsubscribe, pirate her show, after company teases AI “user-generated content”
Disney CEO Bob Iger ignited a wave of backlash after suggesting that Disney+ could soon let subscribers generate their own AI-generated content.
During this week’s earnings call, Iger said the company is exploring partnerships with AI firms to bring large-language-model tools onto the platform, an idea that many artists and viewers see as another step toward replacing human creatives.
The backlash on social media was immediate. Critics warned that Disney’s push toward AI-generated media not only threatens people's jobs but also undermines artistic integrity.
Make your own Disney shows with AI
During this year's fourth-quarter "Earnings Results Webcast," Iger suggested that Disney+ customers would be able to generate their own content with generative AI in the future.
"AI is going to give us the ability to provide users of Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content," he said.
He didn't give any details on what this might look like, but seemed determined to integrate AI to increase viewer "engagement." Regardless, the backlash was swift and uncompromising.
Many who heard the news and are against AI-generated art assumed this is another step toward replacing human artists, actors, and other workers who make beloved films and TV shows possible with something Disney will not have to pay.
The proliferation of AI music and the introduction of an AI "actress" have already fueled fears over the death of art as we know it. Critics believe this will not only squeeze the life out of the media we love, but also result in massive job and income loss.
A report released back in August found that this trend was to blame for over 10,000 job cuts.
"PICK UP A PENCIL OR DIE"
Leading the charge against the idea of user-generated AI slop on Disney+ is writer and animator Dana Terrace, creator of the Disney series The Owl House. She went as far as telling her followers on X to ditch the app and pirate her show.
“Unsubscribe from Disney+," she tweeted. "Pirate Owl House. I don’t care. F*ck gen AI.”
In subsequent posts, she advised folks to "DRAW AND WRITE AND POST YOUR OWN SH*T FOR FREE" rather than paying a monthly subscription to have an LLM cobbled together something made from countless scraps of other people's work. She further called Iger and other pro-AI CEOs "f*cking ghouls."
"PICK UP A PENCIL OR DIE," she concluded.
Plenty more X users are coming out against Iger's announcement, like it was a Star Wars series starring Jar Jar Binks.
"People NEED to make noise about this, because this sort of thing is literally going to cripple a whole HOST of things all over the world and society if it is not dealt with," said @TIShadow6.
"It's heartbreaking to think of the wonderful artists who put so much obvious love and care into every frame of the old Disney cartoons," wrote @NonsenseIsland. "I'm glad they aren't around to see this."
"Butt announces sh*t," @Ranboosaysstuff summarized.
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