Here’s a sign that customer data is increasingly important: open source database vendor Couchbase has introduced a “engagement database” that is says is new class of system, distinct from transactional and analytical databases. It’s optimized for real time interactions at scale, with key features including in-memory data, full text search, and mobile deployment. They’ve written a helpful white paper explaining the details.

B2B profiling vendor MarianaIQ was built from the start on using artificial intelligence to identify buyer personas. They’ve just announced a neural network-based model to help companies find new target accounts. Also new: a targeting option for Google AdWords, which joins existing Twitter and Facebook ad capabilities.

Disney has agreed to license more than 200 characters, costumes, and environments (but not voices or talent likenesses) to OpenAI for Sora, its gen AI video platform. This is highly unusual for Disney, which generally sues AI models for copyright infringement; in fact, it sued Google for that a day before announcing the OpenAI deal. Disney will also invest $1 billion in OpenAI, nicely illustrating how very eager they are to join the AI party.