Disney and Universal team up to sue AI photo generator Midjourney, claiming copyright infringement
CNN
Disney and Universal are suing AI photo generation company Midjourney, marking the first major legal showdown between Hollywood studios and an artificial intelligence company.
Disney and Universal are suing AI photo generation company Midjourney, marking the first major legal showdown between Hollywood studios and an artificial intelligence company. Midjourney, which enables users to create realistic-looking images from a text prompt in just seconds, is one of the most popular AI image generators. The movie companies allege that Midjourney trained its AI models on their intellectual property and that it generates images featuring their famous characters in violation of copyright law, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in California federal court. In their complaint, the studios call Midjourney a “virtual vending machine” and “bottomless pit of plagiarism” that generates “endless unauthorized copies of Disney’s and Universal’s copyrighted works.” Most large, publicly available AI models are trained on large repositories of data, including images and video, from across the internet, often without asking permission. Artists, authors, musicians and Hollywood actors have also raised concerns about their work or likeness being used to train generative AI tools, which could then be used to replace them. Midjourney and other AI firms were sued in a separate copyright infringement case by a group of visual artists in 2023, which the companies have sought to dismiss but which is currently in discovery. But Wednesday’s lawsuit marks the first time major Hollywood studios have sued an AI company. The lawsuit cites instances where Midjourney could easily be prompted to generate popular Universal and Disney characters, including Star Wars characters, Bart Simpson, Shrek, Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” Wall-E, the minions from the film “Despicable Me” and more.
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