Task force launched by Disney to explore AI, cut costs

BURBANK, California: Amidst a strike by Hollywood writers and actors who are battling to limit the industry’s use of artificial intelligence (AI), Walt Disney has created a task force to research the technology and how it can be applied across its entire business.

Launched earlier this year before the Hollywood writers’ strike, the group is looking to develop in-house AI applications and form partnerships with startups, Reuters reported.

The entertainment giant has 11 current job openings seeking candidates with expertise in AI or machine learning covering almost its entire business, from Walt Disney Studios to its theme parks and engineering group, Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as Disney-branded television and the advertising team, is looking to build a “next-generation” AI-powered ad system.

In Hollywood, AI is seen by writers and actors as a threat to their jobs, and is a central issue in contract negotiations with the striking Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America.

Disney, which has invested in technological innovation since the company’s earliest days, is careful about how it discusses AI in public.

Now in his second stint as Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger made embracing technologies one of his three priorities when he first became CEO in 2005.

Three years later, the company announced a major research and development initiative with top technology universities around the world, as well as funding labs at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

According to its website, Disney Research has been exploring AI, machine learning and visual computing in Switzerland.