Whoa, art adventurers! You know how fun it is to get AI to whip up images of, say, Mickey or a Stormtrooper? Well, it seems Disney and Universal aren’t too thrilled about how AI tools like Midjourney learned to do that.
What’s the Scoop?
Basically, the big studios are suing Midjourney. They claim Midjourney trained its awesome AI on their copyrighted characters (think Homer Simpson, Darth Vader, and many more) without asking for permission. That’s a big no-no in their book.
They’re serious and are asking for a few things:
- Monetary damages (ka-ching!).
- A full jury trial.
- An order to make Midjourney stop using their characters, pronto.
Why This Matters
This is a pretty big deal, folks. It’s part of a larger debate: can AI companies just gobble up publicly available images, even copyrighted ones, to train their models? Some tech companies have been pushing for that, but creators and studios are pushing back.
This lawsuit could really shake things up for the future of AI art and copyright law. Innovation is super cool, but creators’ rights are also incredibly important. It’s definitely one to watch.