Studios Say AI Tool Is Churning Out ‘Plagiarized’ Darth Vader, Simpsons Images

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Disney Co. and NBCUniversal sued an artificial intelligence start-up Wednesday in Los Angeles, alleging in federal court that Midjourney illegally uses copyrighted works to create images that "blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's and Universal's famous characters."

The lawsuit alleges that Midjourney uses AI-generated characters from the studios' "Star Wars," "The Simpsons" and other titles, and claims that the company ignored requests to stop.

A message sent to San Francisco-based Midjourney seeking comment was not immediately answered.

Disney and Universal are considered the first major Hollywood studios to file copyright infringement lawsuits against an AI image-generating service.

"Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism," according to the suit.

The Hollywood companies contend they sent cease-and-desist letters to Midjourney seeking to prevent further copyright infringement, but the company continued to release unauthorized images.

The lawsuit states that Midjourney operates when a subscriber submits a request for an image of, for example, the Darth Vader character in a specified setting or involved in a particular action. Midjourney then "obliges by generating and displaying a high quality, downloadable image featuring Disney's copyrighted Darth Vader character," according to the complaint.

Disney and NBCU are seeking unspecified statutory damages, an accounting of Midjourney's proceeds from the alleged infringement and injunctive relief.

City News Service