Walt Disney, Comcast Reportedly Sue AI-Image Startup Midjourney For Copyright Infringement

Walt Disney (DIS) and Comcast (CMCSA) have sued AI image generation startup Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement and unfair use of their creatives, according to media reports.

The lawsuit is the latest in an ongoing dispute between the creative industry, encompassing news publishing and Hollywood, and the tech companies behind the leading AI chatbots.

Publishers and creators have alleged that AI chatbot firms have gained by training their models on proprietary content, in violation of copyright law, and have demanded compensation.

In the lawsuit filed in the federal district court in Los Angeles, Disney and Comcast alleged that the tool plagiarized copyrighted characters from films and TV shows, including Star Wars, The Simpsons, Shrek, and Minions, according to a Bloomberg report.

The report added that the companies said they had asked Midjourney to cease and are now seeking $150,000 per infringement as compensation.

Midjourney allows users to create AI-generated images from text prompts. 

In their complaint, Disney and Comcast said Midjourney made $300 million last year alone and is planning a "soon-to-be-released video service", according to the BBC.

The suit also sheds light on the debate over the legality of training AI models on massive amounts of data, including text, images, and video that is produced by others. AI companies maintain their models trained on content freely available on the Internet.

Midjourney was founded by David Holz, who previously founded the hardware sensor firm Leap Motion, and was launched publicly in 2022.

It describes itself as "as an independent research lab" with a "small self-funded team" of 11 full-time staff members, according to its website.

Access to Midjourney is available through the messaging app Discord and, since last year, through the company's website.

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