Disney has accused Google of copyright infringement on a ‘massive scale’
Disney has accused Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale,” alleging that the tech giant trains its AI tools on copyrighted materials and allows those tools to generate infringing images and videos. reports that Disney’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Google on Wednesday.
“Google is infringing on Disney’s copyrights on a large scale, by copying a large body of Disney copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its copyrighted works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights,” reads the letter, which Variety revised.
The letter includes sample images from several Disney properties, including Deadpool, Moana, Star Wars and others, reproduced by Google’s AI tools. Disney is demanding that Google put safeguards in all of its AI products to prevent further violations. The media giant sent a letter to Character.AI in September and is currently suing for alleged copyright infringement.
Copyright enforcement has become more difficult in the face of AI-created images, and companies are increasingly taking an “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach. Today, Disney with OpenAI authorizes the use of its characters in Sora, OpenAI’s video generator. The deal will see Disney invest $1 billion in OpenAI (a pittance by now), with the option to purchase additional equity at a later date.
