Disney Joins Adobe and The New York Times in a New AI-Content Coalition — Here's Why Fans Are Watching

The Walt Disney Company has signed on as a founding member of ARIAM, the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media, alongside Adobe, The New York Times, the BBC and other major content owners. Led by former Netflix executive Victoria Furniss, the Los Angeles-based coalition aims to keep AI accountable, protect intellectual property, and safeguard the well-known characters fans trust.

Disney has signed on as a founding member of a new global content coalition built to keep artificial intelligence from running roughshod over creative work — joining Adobe, The New York Times and a roster of major publishers and broadcasters in The Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media, the Los Angeles-based group known as ARIAM. The organization is led by Victoria Furniss, a former Netflix executive, and frames its mission as making sure AI "supports human creativity, respects the rule of law, and safeguards consumers."

What ARIAM Is and Why It Launched Now

The Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media launched as a content-focused coalition uniting media companies, publishers, broadcasters and technology players around a single idea: that AI should be built with accountability, transparency and safety "embedded from day one." The group says responsible innovation is good for society, and warns that without meaningful guardrails, "misuse, misinformation, and IP theft will harm creators and consumers."

The timing is no accident. The launch arrives as the entertainment industry continues to wrestle with AI, which has remained a third rail in the creative community even as some prominent voices embrace its potential. ARIAM plans to advocate for legal and policy frameworks that advance AI's progress while building "a foundation of protection." It describes the intended beneficiaries of that protection as "consumers (particularly children), creators, and, more broadly, our culture, society, and democratic institutions."

Who Is Leading the Coalition

ARIAM will operate globally under Victoria Furniss, CEO and co-founder of The Birdella Group. Furniss brings a deep media-policy background to the role: she spent nearly nine years at Netflix, where she held multiple legal and public-policy executive posts, and before that put in six-and-a-half years at Warner Bros. That résumé — straddling both a major streamer and a legacy studio — positions her to speak the language of the content companies the coalition is trying to rally.

"ARIAM's goal is not to slow AI down but to ensure it is able to sustain the broader ecosystems long term," Furniss said in a statement. "ARIAM is a first-of-its-kind cross content sector coalition seeking to ensure that AI supports human creativity, respects the rule of law, and safeguards consumers. AI developers have a genuine opportunity to ensure that creativity and innovation both flourish."

The Membership: Studios, Publishers and Tech Together

What sets ARIAM apart is the breadth of its founding roster, which pulls together household-name content owners and technology companies that do not always sit on the same side of the AI debate. The initial members include Adobe, Advance, the BBC, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, Condé Nast, The Financial Times, ITV, The New York Times, Reach, The Walt Disney Company and Wiley.

That lineup spans Hollywood, global broadcasting, prestige journalism, academic publishing and creative software — a coalition that, taken together, controls an enormous library of the kind of copyrighted text, video and imagery that AI systems are routinely trained on. Disney's presence is especially notable: as the steward of franchises like the parks, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars, it brings some of the most recognizable and valuable intellectual property in entertainment into a group dedicated to protecting exactly that.

The Problem ARIAM Says It Wants to Fix

The coalition's launch leans heavily on the argument that AI, deployed carelessly, can corrupt trusted creative material. Child-safety expert John Carr, OBE, framed the stakes in stark terms: "For years, parents, teachers and children have relied on well-known characters, media, and educational materials as safe, dependable guides or sources of entertainment. The irresponsible development and use of AI have allowed these to be hijacked and distorted, turning them into agents of harm. Responsible-by-design development and use of AI tools must be at the heart of the way forward. Parents, teachers and children need to be able to trust again."

ARIAM says it is also working with Damian Collins, OBE, who underscored that existing law does not evaporate in the AI era. "Using AI to break the law can never be an acceptable excuse," Collins said. "Laws around personal safety, intellectual property and financial crime still apply in the age of AI. This is why ARIAM has been created and why I'm proud to working with this necessary initiative."

From the technology side, Adobe Chief Legal Officer Louise Pentland offered a creator-first framing. "Adobe's mission is empowering everyone to create," she said. "We believe creativity is a uniquely human trait, and that AI should amplify human imagination, not replace it. As these technologies evolve, it's essential that innovation and creator protection advance together. We're committed to advocating for creator-first policies and to working with the creative community, policymakers and the industry to ensure the creative economy can thrive in the age of AI."

How This Fits the Broader AI Reckoning in Entertainment

ARIAM does not exist in a vacuum. One of the most significant developments of recent months has been the ability of the DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA to separately reach contract renewals with the studios and streamers — agreements that each included AI protections. Those deals helped the industry avoid a repeat of the labor turmoil of 2023, when the arrival of ChatGPT sharply escalated tensions over copyright protections and the future of the creative workforce.

Where those guild agreements addressed AI worker-by-worker and studio-by-studio, ARIAM aims to push the conversation upstream toward the policy and development layer — advocating for a shift in how AI is built so that accountability, transparency and safety are baked in rather than bolted on. It is the difference between negotiating protections after a tool exists and pressing for those protections to be designed into the tool in the first place.

What This Means for Fans

For Disney fans, ARIAM is a signal about how the company intends to defend the characters, stories and likenesses that define its franchises in an era when AI can generate convincing imitations of almost anything. A coalition that explicitly calls out the "hijacking" and "distortion" of well-known characters — with Disney as a founding member — suggests the company wants a seat in shaping the rules rather than simply reacting to them. If ARIAM succeeds in pushing for accountability and IP protection at the development stage, it could mean stronger safeguards for the creators behind Disney's stories and clearer lines around how beloved characters can and cannot be used by AI systems. For audiences, the promise is a future where the magic stays trustworthy — where the characters families have relied on for generations remain in the hands of the people who created them.