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TOGETHER WITH |
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It's Friday and ChatGPT is growing up. According to OpenAI CEO of Applications Fidji Simo, the chatbot will debut an "adult mode" in the first quarter of 2026. |
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Today's News |
🤝 Disney seals a $1B deal with OpenAI 🌍 Linguana localizes creator content 🛠️ Instagram wants you to fix your feed 🏀 Home Depot taps Dude Perfect 💸 Beast Games is coming back
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HOUSE OF MOUSE |
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Disney just signed a $1B licensing deal with OpenAI |
The announcements: Last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger told shareholders that the House of Mouse was in the midst of "productive conversations" with unnamed AI companies, and that Disney+ was planning to embrace AI-generated UGC featuring proprietary characters. |
Now, two major developments have unfolded: |
Disney has announced that it will invest $1 billion into OpenAI as part of a three-year licensing deal. That arrangement will allow OpenAI's video generator, Sora, to output content containing characters from Disney properties, including Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars.
At the same time, the Mouse House has filed a cease-and-desist against OpenAI competitor and YouTube parent Google that accuses the tech company of copyright infringement on a "massive scale."
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The lawsuit: As for its complaint against Google, Disney specifically cited AI models Gemini, Veo, Imagen, and Nano Banana, saying the models have generated "pristine" images/videos of Star Wars and Marvel characters in response to user prompts. The entertainment giant added that it's been telling Google about its IP concerns for months, but "[i]f anything, Google's infringement has only increased during that time," it alleged. |
We don't doubt that Disney—which is notoriously litigious—has been pursuing Google's alleged infringement for months. But given the timing of the cease-and-desist and Disney's shiny new AI deal, it's worth noting that Google has emerged as OpenAI's biggest potential competitor. It debuted the latest version of its Gemini chatbot last month, and saw quick comparisons to OpenAI's ChatGPT. |
Much of that dialogue has significantly favored Google, prompting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to send a company-wide memo declaring a "code red" effort to improve ChatGPT ASAP. Now, with the unveiling of the Disney x OpenAI deal, it's clear the biggest entertainment company in the world has chosen a side in the AI race. |
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How much influence does your brand hold? Viral Nation's Culture Quotient can find out. |
In the digital age, conversations happen fast—and if you miss the wave, it's hard to stay culturally relevant. But how can you know if your brand is hitting the right note? |
Traditional social metrics offer data on volume, but don't account for the social context that actually drives (or dooms) performance. |
That's where Viral Nation's Culture Quotient comes in. |
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CQ measures the cultural relevancy of your brand through signals derived from social data. Unlike traditional metrics, the CQ framework is trackable, benchmarkable, and can correlate connections with business outcomes. |
What determines your brand's Culture Quotient Score? |
CQ blends three cultural drivers into one measurable score: |
1. Brand Awareness
Are you visibly present in the conversations that matter? CQ measures your share-of-voice (SOV) and mentions relative to competitors. |
2. Brand Affinity
Is your content driving connection? CQ quantifies sentiment strength and how your brand resonates compared to the competitive benchmarks. |
3. Brand Velocity
Is your engagement growing faster than other brands in your vertical? CQ can measure the rate of momentum that signals true cultural traction. |
Ready to find out where your brand stands in the cultural matrix (and where you're leaving opportunity on the table)? |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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Creators with international audiences grow by localizing their content. Linguana is using AI-cloned voices to help them do it. (Tubefilter - Partner Story)
According to a new study from Pew Research Center, teens are using major social platforms in greater numbers than ever before—but they're also feeling increasingly anxious about the impact of social media. (Tubefilter)
Amazon Prime Video viewers might not want to hold their breath for more AI recaps. A test of the feature seems to be on hiatus after one recap got the timeline of Fallout wrong by roughly 120 years. (The Verge)
A newly passed New York law "requires persons who produce or create an advertisement to identify if it includes AI generated synthetic performers." (Engadget)
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PLATFORM UPDATES |
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Instagram wants users to fix their own recommendation algorithms (with AI) |
The algorithm AI: Yet another major social media platform wants users to manage the quality of its recommendation algorithm themselves—with help from an AI chatbot, of course. Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing Meta hard on generative AI (to the shareholder-spooking tune of $72 billion in capital expenditures). Now, the latest product of that push is coming to Instagram. |
The platform's newest tool, Your Algorithm, bears a striking resemblance to recently announced features from X and YouTube, right down to the chatbot aspect. X's tool will use Grok, and YouTube's will use Veo 3. Instagram, on the other hand, will presumably enlist Meta AI for the job. |
The platform describes Your Algorithm as "a new way to control your Instagram experience." It's rolling out first to Reels, and will appear as a tappable icon in the upper right-hand corner of users' apps. Hit the icon, and a panel will show you your top interests and let you "tune your preferences" by "typ[ing] in the topics you want to see more or less of." |
Reels will then adjust your personal recommendation algorithm based on your input. |
The context: Giving people more control over what they see on social media is a good thing, and—considering how often users and creators alike raise concerns about recommendation algorithms—we're not surprised that this is one of the first public-facing areas where platforms are implementing DIY AI. |
Nevertheless, it's concerning that platforms are putting the burden on users to fix their feeds rather than actively addressing the onslaught of AI slop, faceless garbage, and irrelevant content by making structural algorithmic changes. |
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THE BIZ |
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Home Depot is putting Dude Perfect in the "starting lineup" of its new creator program |
The context: 2025 has proven to be the year of the creator program. Every brand from Best Buy to Ulta Beauty to Starbucks introduced initiatives that turn creators into salespeople by putting them in charge of product recommendations, brand ambassadorship, and sponsored content. |
Now, Home Depot is joining the list of retail brands that have embraced the creator program. The home improvement chain has assembled a team of influencers (or a "crew of doers," as the official Home Depot copy puts it) who will partner with the brand throughout 2026 and beyond. |
(Coincidentally, that creator crew arrives just six months after Home Depot's primary rival, Lowe's, established a creator program of its own with MrBeast at the forefront.) |
The program: Home Depot's take on creator programs uses a similar structure to affiliate marketing programs, with participating creators offering product recommendations and inspiring fans with home decor tips. In return, they'll receive exclusive partnership offers and other opportunities to earn. |
To kick off that initiative, Home Depot has assembled a powerful team for what it describes as its "Starting Lineup." That group includes several sports-focused creators, including the trick-shot masters of Dude Perfect and the American soccer star Trinity Rodman. |
Those ties to the sports world are intentional. Home Depot is aligning its creator program with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Brands and agencies are competing to claim pieces of the footballing action, and Home Depot is no exception. |
As World Cup fever rises, the home improvement chain is hoping its customers get a kick out of its Starting Lineup—and that they'll trust its creator recommendations over the next year. |
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WATCH THIS |
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Beast Games is coming back |
The second season: It's shaping up to be a big holiday season for MrBeast. One month after the opening of his Saudi Arabia-based theme park (aka Beast Land), the YouTube star has dropped the first trailer for Beast Games Season 2. |
In some ways, the second run of MrBeast's Amazon Prime game show looks to be a lot like the first. According to the trailer's description, "100 of the strongest people on earth" will face off against "100 of the smartest competing for over $10,000,000 in prizes in the largest games ever made in entertainment history." Slightly different premise, same big money. |
But there is one major twist fans can look forward to in Season 2: a full-episode crossover with Survivor. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
