Disney and OpenAI Sora Licensing Deal

They opened with holiday lights, late year energy, and a quick check on December model rumors like Chestnut, Hazelnut, and Meta’s Avocado. They joked about AI naming moving from space themes to food themes. The first half focused on space based data centers, heat dissipation in orbit, Shopify’s AI upgrades, and Google’s Anti Gravity builder. The second half focused on MCP adoption, connector ecosystems, developer workflow fragmentation, and a long segment on Disney’s landmark Sora licensing deal and what fan generated content means for the future of storytelling.

Key Points Discussed

Space based data centers become real after a startup trains the first LLM in orbit

China already operates a 12 satellite AI cluster with an 8B parameter model

Cooling in space is counterintuitive, requiring radiative heat transfer

NASA derived materials and coolant systems may influence orbital data centers

Shopify launches AI simulated shoppers and agentic storefronts for GEO optimization

Shopify Sidekick now builds apps, storefront changes, and full automations conversationally

Anti Gravity allows conversational live website edits but currently hits rate limits

MCP enters the Linux Foundation with Anthropic donating full rights to the protocol

Growing confusion between apps, connectors, and tool selection in ChatGPT

AI consulting becomes harder as clients expect consistent results despite model updates

Agencies struggle with n8n versioning, OpenAI model drift, search cost spikes, and maintenance

Push toward multi model training, department specific tools, and heavy workshop onboarding

Disney signs a three year Sora licensing deal for Pixar, Marvel, Disney, and Star Wars characters

Disney invests 1B in OpenAI and deploys ChatGPT to all employees

Debate over canon, fan generated stories, moderation guardrails, and Disney Plus distribution

McDonald’s AI holiday ad removed after public backlash for uncanny visuals and tone

OpenAI releases a study of thirty seven million chats showing health searches dominate

Users shift topics by time of day: philosophy at 2 a.m., coding on weekdays, gaming on weekends

Timestamps and Topics

00:00:00 👋 Opening, holiday lights, food themed model names

00:02:15 🚀 Space based data centers and first LLM trained in orbit

00:05:10 ❄️ Cooling challenges, radiative heat, NASA tech spinoffs

00:08:12 🛰️ China’s orbital AI systems and 2035 megawatt plans

00:10:45 🛒 Shopify launches SimJammer AI shopper simulations

00:12:40 ⚙️ Agentic storefronts and cross platform product sync

00:14:55 🧰 Sidekick builds apps and automations conversationally

00:17:30 🌐 Anti Gravity live editing and Gemini rate limits

00:20:49 🔧 MCP transferred to the Linux Foundation

00:25:12 🔌 Confusion between apps and connectors in ChatGPT

00:27:00 🧪 Consulting strain, versioning chaos, model drift

00:30:48 🏗️ Department specific multimodel adoption workflows

00:33:15 🎬 Disney signs Sora licensing deal for all major IP

00:35:40 📺 Disney Plus will stream select fan generated Sora videos

00:38:10 ⚠️ Safeguards against misuse, IP rules, and story ethics

00:41:52 🍟 McDonald’s AI ad backlash and public perception

00:45:20 🔍 OpenAI analysis of 37M chats

00:47:18 ⏱️ Time of day topic patterns and behavioral insights

00:49:25 💬 More on tools, A to A workflows, and future coworker gems

00:53:56 🏁 Closing and Friday preview

The Daily AI Show Co Hosts: Brian Maucere, Beth Lyons, Andy Halliday, and Carl Yeh