Knowledge Base

Disney Jr launches Ozzy Fox, its first series made with AI-native studio Animaj

Animation Magazine / C21Media

• Disney Jr quietly launched Ozzy Fox on YouTube and YouTube Kids in mid-July 2026: the first original series from AI studio Animaj, co-developed with Disney Jr.
• Disney and Animaj frame the series as creator-led, with Animaj's AI tools accelerating production workflows while creative teams drive storytelling and quality.
• Neither company has disclosed to what extent generative AI was used to develop and produce the series, a gap noted by the trade press.

Assuring quality learning in a gen AI-integrated future: The role of adaptive capabilities

TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency)

• Third resource in TEQSA's assessment reform series (24 June 2026), shifting emphasis from securing assessment against gen AI to developing student capabilities.
• Names evaluative judgement, critical thinking and ethical reasoning as adaptive capabilities tertiary education should deliberately develop.
• Offers evidence-informed approaches for assuring learning quality where gen AI is embedded in study and future work, under the Threshold Standards.

Code of Practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content

European Commission · European Commission

• The European Commission published a voluntary Code of Practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content on 10 June 2026.
• It helps providers and deployers meet AI Act Article 50 transparency duties, which apply from 2 August 2026.
• It covers machine-readable marking by providers and the disclosure or labelling of deepfakes and public-interest text by deployers.

AI Adoption Plan: Creative Industries

UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology · AI Champion for the Creative Industries

• DSIT published an AI Adoption Plan for the Creative Industries on 8 June 2026, authored by the sector AI Champion.
• Its lead principle is augmentation first: AI should support human creativity, not displace creative workers.
• It reports 51% of creative businesses use AI versus 33% across all businesses, and sets out eight practical steps.

Rights, IP & training data

What UK university AI policies actually do: a study of 96 institutions (HEPI Policy Note 71)

Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) · Illingworth, S.

• Analysis of UK university AI policies finds 41 per cent of 163 degree-awarding institutions have no easily findable public AI policy.
• Four exemplar policies are named, including creative-arts specialist Arts University Plymouth.
• A policy's hosting location predicts its function: misconduct-framework policies enforce compliance, learning-and-teaching policies educate.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance

EU ratification of the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence

Council of Europe

• The European Union ratified the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI on 15 May 2026, the first binding international AI treaty.
• The Convention entered into force on 1 November 2025 and covers AI across public and private sectors, with education within its scope.
• Parties must ensure AI lifecycle activities comply with human rights, democracy and the rule of law, including risk assessments and remedies.

Governance & guidance

Netflix confirms INKubator, its artist-led, GenAI-native internal animation studio

Netflix statement, carried in full by Animation Magazine

• Netflix's INKubator launched quietly in March 2026 as an internal, artist-led, GenAI-native animation studio making experimental shorts and specials.
• Netflix describes an artist-focused environment for exploring how new tools and workflows, alongside traditional animation practices, can enhance storytelling.
• Netflix states that Netflix Animation Studios' films will continue to be made using traditional animation techniques and practices.

Artificial Intelligence in Fine Arts Education: A Systematic Literature Review

SAGE Open · Yance Zeng, Harrinni Md Noor, Muhammad Faiz Sabri

• PRISMA systematic review of 78 peer-reviewed studies on artificial intelligence in fine arts education, covering 2019 to 2024.
• Categorises the AI techniques most used in the field, spanning generative adversarial networks, convolutional neural networks, large language models and VR/AR.
• Finds AI adoption concentrated in visual arts education, with gaps in non-visual arts domains and in primary and secondary teaching.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment

EU AI Act Omnibus simplification agreement: education compliance deferred to 2 December 2027

European Commission

• EU institutions reached a provisional omnibus simplification agreement for the AI Act on 7 May 2026, pending formal adoption.
• Compliance obligations affecting high-risk education AI systems are deferred to 2 December 2027 under the agreement.
• The package also bans nudification apps as part of citizen-protection measures accompanying the simplification.

Governance & guidance

University of Surrey: AI embedded in every degree from September 2026

University of Surrey

• From September 2026 every University of Surrey degree will include discipline-specific AI teaching, from foundation year to postgraduate level.
• Creative practice is named alongside engineering, law, business and clinical disciplines as areas where core competencies will be preserved.
• Assessment is being redesigned institution-wide around process, decision-making and applied problem-solving rather than outputs.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance

Art, Design and AI Educator's Toolkit: values-led generative AI in design education

Association for Learning Technology (ALT) blog

• Openly licensed toolkit for values-led generative AI teaching in art and design higher education, funded by QAA and developed across three UK institutions.
• Named contributors include Ruth Powell (UAL) and Lucy-Ann Pickering (NTU), with Norwich University of the Arts as a partner.
• Structured around four design-cycle stages: research, ideation, experimentation and iteration, and design communication, with classroom-ready activities, case studies and values-based prompt cards.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment

UK Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence: government drops opt-out TDM exception

UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)

• The UK government formally dropped its preferred opt-out text and data mining exception in its statutory report on copyright and AI.
• The decision followed 11,520 consultation responses; the government will monitor industry-led licensing arrangements instead.
• No immediate legislative change was enacted; the report and impact assessment set the evidence base for future steps.

Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

HEPI Student Generative AI Survey 2026

Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) · Stephenson, R., Armstrong, C.

• HEPI's 2026 survey finds 95 per cent of UK undergraduates use AI, and 94 per cent use generative AI for assessed work.
• Arts and humanities students are particularly likely to feel under-supported in developing AI skills.
• Students directly including AI-generated text in assessed work rose to 12 per cent, from 8 per cent in 2025 and 3 per cent in 2024.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment Governance & guidance

European Parliament resolution on copyright and generative AI (TA-10-2026-0066)

European Parliament

• The European Parliament adopted its resolution on copyright and generative AI on 10 March 2026 by 460 votes to 71.
• It calls for full transparency on copyright-protected works used in AI training, including an itemised list of each work.
• Parliament asks the Commission to examine fair and proportionate remuneration of rights holders for past unlicensed training uses.

Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

Screen Australia AI Transparency Statement (stakeholder provisions)

Screen Australia

• Screen Australia requires any stakeholder use of AI, including by funding applicants, to be declared and consistent with its Terms of Trade.
• Since 2025 all agency funding application forms collect information on AI usage in applications and funded projects.
• The statement rests on Screen Australia's September 2024 AI Guiding Principles covering transparency, ethical use and accountability.

Production & craft Rights, IP & training data Governance & guidance

House of Lords report: AI, copyright and the creative industries

UK Parliament, Communications and Digital Committee

• The Lords Communications and Digital Committee finds UK creative industries face a clear and present danger from unremunerated AI training on copyrighted work.
• It recommends ruling out an opt-out text and data mining exception and making training-data transparency a statutory obligation.
• It urges a fair licensing market, protections against unauthorised digital replicas and style imitation, and sovereign AI capability.

Rights, IP & training data Labour & workforce

Path of practical teaching of AI technology in animation majors

Discover Artificial Intelligence (Springer Nature) · Zhang, J., Guan, X.

• Empirical study constructing an animation practice teaching path that integrates generative AI with a Transformer-based human pose estimation model.
• The optimised pose estimation model reduced error to 0.15 and lifted animation generation quality scores to 92 points.
• The AI-integrated teaching group significantly outperformed the traditional group on both technical application and artistic creation indicators.

Production & craft Teaching, curriculum & assessment

Thaler v. Perlmutter: Supreme Court denies certiorari, human-authorship requirement upheld

US Supreme Court / SCOTUSblog

• The US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Thaler v. Perlmutter on 2 March 2026, leaving the D.C. Circuit human-authorship ruling intact.
• The D.C. Circuit ruling stands: US copyright law requires a human author; an AI system cannot hold authorship.
• The ruling is limited to works with no asserted human authorship; human contributions to AI-assisted works are assessed case by case.

Rights, IP & training data

Integrating generative AI in higher art education: a systematic review

SN Computer Science (Springer Nature) · Fang, Z.

• PRISMA systematic review of 27 studies on generative AI integration in higher art education across visual arts, design and STEAM.
• Generative AI consistently supports early-stage creative exploration, enhancing divergent thinking and reducing affective barriers for novice learners.
• The review identifies a persistent gap: AI accelerates conceptual generation but offers limited support for execution phases requiring embodied practice.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment

Human-AI Co-Creation or Conflict? Art Students' Perspectives on Creative Identity

Education and Information Technologies

• Q methodology study of 40 university art students including animation, visual arts, design and music.
• Identifies five student stances from authorship guardian to enthusiastic explorer.
• Shows creative identity, not tool skill, is the axis on which student responses to AI divide.

Teaching, curriculum & assessment