- Disney and NBCUniversal sued the AI company Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement.
- The lawsuit claims the tech creates unauthorized copies of works ranging from Star Wars to The Simpsons.
- Hollywood has been cautious about AI, fearing its misuse, but investors see cost-cutting potential.
Hollywood is taking aim at the AI image generator Midjourney.
On Wednesday, Disney and NBCUniversal’s movie studios sued Midjourney, alleging its product ripped off their famous characters in properties ranging from Star Wars to The Simpsons.
The media companies use colorful language in their 110-page copyright infringement lawsuit. They argue that Midjourney’s tech amounts to a “virtual vending machine, generating endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works.”
They call Midjourney “the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
Midjourney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Many news media companies, including Business Insider’s parent Axel Springer, have struck deals with AI companies to help train their models. The film and TV industry, however, has been slower to follow because of worries that the nascent tech will be used to replace their IP and talent. AI has also been a battleground between Hollywood companies and the industry’s labor unions.
Despite this, investors have poured money into AI companies that are aimed at Hollywood. These startups see the opportunity to use the tech to cut time and costs for making filmed entertainment.
This new lawsuit could throw a wrench in some of those plans. Of particular note, Disney and Universal included examples of images created by Midjourney’s tools in their suit, side by side with the original source material, to show how close Midjourney’s versions are to their characters.
The suit describes how when a user gave it a prompt like “Chewbacca, screenshot from movie,” Midjourney generated images copying the movie companies’ famous characters. According to the suit, a user doesn’t have to request a specific Disney character for Midjourney to create one that copies its copyrighted work, giving the example of the prompt “Superhero fight scene” that produced an image that resembled Disney’s Spider-Man.
Below are some examples they share in the lawsuit. What do you think?
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