Disney just invested its resources and IP into these A.I. companies

Before that story, here’s what you should also know this week

• D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event is just a few weeks away on August 9-11. Set to return to the Anaheim Convention Center across the street from the Disneyland Resort in Southern California, programming and exhibits information has been released.

Disney accelerates with A.I.

While lots of discussion is still happening around the use of artificial intelligence in the creative economy, The Walt Disney Company seems to have found a way to use A.I. across their business units.

The Disney Accelerator program is Disney's take on a tech startup incubator. Since launching back in 2014, the program has invested both monetary and other unique resources like its IP into over 60 companies that have gone on to succeed with profits, brand recoginition, and ongoing mentorship after graduating from the program.

To celebrate this year's 10th anniversary of the program, the chosen cohort of startups basically made a statement- A.I. has a place at Disney.

Five companies selected this year all have an element of A.I. Incorporated into their products and/or services.

For example, AudioShake is a company that uses A.I. To separate the layers of a recorded song. In the video shared at the Demo Day which marks the end of the three-month Accelerator, Disney Music executives who mentored AudioShake showed off a use-case for the technology by isolating Peter Pan's dialogue sans the music from the song 'You Can Fly' from the 1953 Disney animated classic.

Another company that incorporates A.I. And was part of the Disney Accelerator this year is Nuro. It's an autonomous vehicle company using its sophisticated artificial intelligence software to power custom zero-emissions vehicles that are designed to deliver goods like groceries. Walt Disney Imagineering is currently in talks with Nuro's leaders right now to see how they can incorporate their vehicles in carrying items purchased by guests at the Disney theme parks and delivering them to their hotels.

“For the last ten years, the Disney Accelerator has been connecting Disney with technology companies that have the potential to transform the media industry. That transformation has happened on a larger scale than any of us could have ever imagined,” said David Min, Vice President of Innovation. “Through collaborations with more than 60 global companies like Epic Games, Sphero, Attentive and Kahoot!, we’ve created a program centered around relationships, teamwork, leveraging each other’s strengths, and dreaming big."

Min continued, "Taken together, it creates something truly magical, which has been an honor to lead over the last ten years. I’m excited to explore how we might continue to work with our Disney Accelerator companies to help shape the next decade of innovation.”

If there is anything more that we'll see from Disney in the future when it comes to innovation, we can definitely bet that artificial intelligence companies will be a familiar sight when it comes to future Disney Accelerator startups- and possibly your next Disney vacation or film, too.

You can watch the 2024 Demo Day from this year’s Disney Accelerator cohort by clicking here.

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