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Google courts Hollywood with billions for AI training rights

Google offers Hollywood billions for AI training rights; no major studio has agreed yet.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-02 10:22

The tech giant has not yet secured agreements with Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, or Universal, but its executives have pitched its AI technology to multiple studio representatives. Per the LA Times, Google could pay a studio like Disney or Pixar around $40 million for the rights to generate outputs featuring a single copyrighted character. The total payout could rise into the billions as more characters are included, and studios could receive a share of advertising revenue from AI-generated content on platforms like YouTube.

For Google, this kind of partnership is about more than data. Producing Disney-approved images of characters such as Darth Vader or Snow White through its Gemini model could help shift public perception of generative AI, which has soured amid worries about job loss and societal disruption. Striking deals with film and TV studios would also signal that the entertainment industry views AI as a legitimate tool, a narrative that would benefit Google in its race against other AI companies.

Studios, however, confront a distinct set of risks. Licensing content to Google could put them on a path that leads to workforce reductions, as AI’s ability to compress production timelines and cut costs is exactly what shareholders want. Lionsgate, a notable studio but not a top-tier one, signed a licensing deal with the AI company Runway in 2024, though no concrete output has been announced. If any major legacy studio follows suit and releases AI-generated content, more production houses would have a reason to do the same, potentially displacing a significant part of the entertainment workforce.

The reluctance of Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Universal to rush into agreements likely reflects public backlash over AI use in films like Sony’s recent Spider-Man sequel, as well as the collapse of a previous Disney-OpenAI arrangement that would have featured user-generated AI content. Google’s outreach also comes after its DeepMind unit invested $75 million in A24 earlier this summer. No final agreement has been reached, but the tech giant’s aggressive approach underscores how much it depends on Hollywood’s intellectual property to legitimize its AI ambitions.