Disney sparks backlash as CEO Bob Iger says company to allow AI-generated content

You’ll soon be able to make your own AI content on Disney+ ... and the overwhelming response is that the House of Mouse needs to remember that creative fields are being threatened by the misguided fervour to embrace artificial intelligence.

Disney CEO Bob Iger sparked the online backlash in a recent earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2025, saying that the company was going to allow AI-generated content to appear on Disney+.

Iger said the company was “in the midst of rolling out the biggest and the most significant changes – from a product perspective, from a technology perspective” since Disney+ launched in 2019.

He added: “The other thing that we’re really excited about, that AI is going to give us the ability to do, is to provide users of Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user-generated content and to consume user generated content – mostly short-form – from others”.

Understandably, Disney fans weren’t best pleased – with some fearing that the ongoing proliferation of AI-generative slop will result in job losses, low-quality content and a betrayal of what Disney stands for.

Others urged Disney+ subscribers to boycott the platform and head to other animation studios like Dreamworks and Illumination, who have denounced the use of generative AI.

Check out some of the reactions below.

One notable reaction was from Dana Terrace, the creator of the Disney animated series The Owl House, who called on viewers to pirate her show.

Iger clearly didn’t read the room, as creatives have been vocal about the existential threat that the encroachment of AI poses to creative fields.

The music industry has seen a great number of fake bands pollute the airwaves, with a new country act recently topping the Billboard charts; an AI controversy erupted earlier this year when a Dutch creator debut an AI “actress” named Tilly Norwood; and the internet was swift in condemning Coca-Cola for using generative AI to create a visual nightmare of a Christmas ad.

It seems there’s no stopping some from sleepwalking into a creative dystopia, and any hopes that viewers / listeners can distinguish AI slop from true artistic expression is dwindling.

Indeed, a recent global study conducted by French streaming service Deezer and research firm Ipsos found that a whopping 97 per cent of people “can’t tell the difference” between real music and Ai-generated tracks.

More reassuringly, the survey did find that only 19 per cent said they felt that they could trust AI, while another 51 per cent said they believe the use of AI in music production could lead to “generic” sounding music.