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From Startup Battlefield to the Disrupt Stage: Discord founder Jason Citron returns to TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

More than a decade ago, Jason Citron took the Disrupt stage to pitch his early-stage company in the Startup Battlefield competition at TechCrunch Disrupt as a scrappy founder pitching his vision. Today, he’s built Discord into one of the most successful consumer platforms of its era — valued in the billions and redefining how communities connect, game, and share online. This October, he returns to the Disrupt Stage with “From Startup Battlefield to Discord,” a session that unpacks his scaling j

Midjourney Is in Major Trouble

AI image generator Midjourney is in major trouble after being accused of facilitating mass copyright infringement. According to documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery is suing the startup for "brazenly" infringing on its intellectual property by letting its users create AI-generated images and videos of its copyrighted characters — which, due to Warner Bros' immense catalog, include everything from the Batman franchise to Scooby-Doo to Bu

Warner Bros., DC Comics and More Sue Midjourney, Says AI Firm 'Thinks It Is Above the Law'

Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against AI image and video company Midjourney, making it the third major entertainment company to do so following Disney and Universal's similar lawsuit filed earlier this year. The lawsuit alleges the AI company violated the entertainment company's copyright protections by allowing AI users to create images with characters like Batman, Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny. "Midjourney thinks it is above the law," Warner Bros. Disc

Warner Bros. sues Midjourney to stop AI knockoffs of Batman, Scooby-Doo

Warner Bros. hit Midjourney with a lawsuit Thursday, crafting a complaint that strives to shoot down defenses that the AI company has already raised in a similar lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal Studios earlier this year. The big film studios have alleged that Midjourney profits off image generation models trained to produce outputs of popular characters. For Disney and Universal, intellectual property rights to pop icons like Darth Vader and the Simpsons were allegedly infringed. And now,

Warner Bros. sues Midjourney for AI images of Superman, Batman, and other characters

In Brief Warner Bros. is suing AI startup Midjourney for copyright infringement, alleging that the company allows users to generate images and videos of characters like Superman, Batman, and Bugs Bunny without permission. As first reported by Reuters, Warner Bros says that Midjourney knowingly engaged in wrongful conduct, noting that the company previously restricted subscribers from generating content based on infringing images, but recently lifted those protections. “Midjourney has made a c

Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Midjourney for copyright infringement

Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against popular AI image generator Midjourney, accusing it of stealing and exploiting its intellectual properties. The complaint revolves around the AI tool's ability to generate images and videos of Warner Bros.' popular fictional characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny and his friends from Looney Tunes. "Midjourney thinks it is above the law," the company wrote in its lawsuit. It said that the image generator sells

AI Firm Midjourney Faces Copyright Lawsuit by Warner Bros., DC Comics and Cartoon Network

If I got a nickel every time a major entertainment company sued AI image and video company Midjourney, I'd now have 15 cents. On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney, following Disney and Universal's similar lawsuit earlier this year. The recent lawsuit alleges the AI company violated the entertainment company's copyright protections by allowing users to create images with characters like Batman, Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny. "Midjourney thinks

Warner Bros. Discovery sues Midjourney for generating ‘countless’ copies of its characters

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Midjourney over claims the AI startup “brazenly dispenses its intellectual property as if it were its own,” as reported earlier by The Hollywood Reporter. In the lawsuit, Warner Bros. Discovery alleges that Midjourney generated “c

How a Meta partnership with Midjourney could inject more AI into future products

Lester Mapp/ZDNET via Midjourney Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Meta is partnering with AI start-up Midjourney. It's the latest move in Meta's rapid transformation to keep up in the AI race. Midjourney will remain independent, according to its CEO. Meta is partnering with Midjourney as part of its ongoing effort to win the AI race. The collaboration will allow Meta to integrate Midjourney's "aesthetic technology" into future models and products

Meta is licensing Midjourney's AI image and video tech

Meta has signed a partnership with Midjourney, an AI service that can generate images and videos from text prompts. According to Alexandr Wang, Meta's Chief AI Officer, Meta is licensing Midjourney's "aesthetic technology" for its future models and products. "To ensure Meta is able to deliver the best possible products for people it will require taking an all-of-the-above approach. This means world-class talent, ambitious compute roadmap, and working with the best players across the industry," W

Meta is partnering with Midjourney and will license its technology for ‘future models and products’

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Even three years after its debut, with ever increasing competition in the AI image generation space, Midjourney, the boostrapped San Francisco startup, remains the “gold standard” for its 20 million users — including us here at VentureBeat, where we use it to generate the “header” art to many of our articles. Apparently, the leaders of Fac

Meta Teams Up With Midjourney for Future Creative AI Models

Meta is diving into AI video generation with a splash. The company will work with and license models from Midjourney AI, one of the most popular AI image and video companies. Alexandr Wang, Meta's chief AI officer, revealed the partnership in a post on X Friday. It's still unclear when a possible Meta x Midjourney model could be available for people to use. Meta teased a possible tool, MovieGen, at its 2024 Connect event, but we haven't heard much since. Right now, you can upload an existing f

Meta partners with Midjourney on AI image and video models

Meta is partnering with Midjourney to license the startup’s AI image and video generation technology, Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang announced Friday in a post on Threads. Wang says Meta’s research teams will collaborate with Midjourney to bring its technology into future AI models and products. “To ensure Meta is able to deliver the best possible products for people it will require taking an all-of-the-above approach,” Wang said. “This means world-class talent, ambitious compute roadmap,

I Tried Midjourney's AI Video Generator, and It's Hard to Beat the Value for the Price

Midjourney has come a long way. As one of the original AI image generators, the popular service is no longer Discord-exclusive. It's expanded its offers with new features and models, including its most recent seventh-generation image model. Now, Midjourney has joined the pool of AI companies that support AI video generation. As CNET's resident AI creative software reviewer, I knew I had to try out its V1 video model. I was most curious to see if the creative, detailed quality I had come to enjo

I'm an AI tools expert, and these are the only two I pay for (plus three I'm considering)

Vstock LLC/Getty Images It's only been almost three years since generative artificial intelligence (AI) hit the mainstream as a new paradigm of productivity, but here we are -- it's everywhere. I test AI tools as part of my work. I'll dig into just about any AI-related technology and see what I can make it do. Many of you have read my ongoing shootouts comparing AIs for programming and AI content checkers, among other kinds of tools. But that's using AI in a rigorous lab environment to provid

The best fitness tracker and smartwatch Prime Day deals

Amazon Prime Day is in full swing, and we’ve been particularly struck by the deep discounts on smartwatches and fitness trackers. The Apple Watch Series 10 and Amazfit Active 2 , two of the best smartwatches we’ve tested, are down to their lowest prices ever at Amazon. We don’t expect to see their prices this low until Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but here we are. These gadgets can help make the journey into becoming healthier a little easier by tracking your sleep, step count, heart rate, and

Midjourney Released an AI Video Generator: How You Can Get Started

The popular AI image platform Midjourney released a new AI-video generator on Wednesday. The new V1 video model lets you create 5-second AI videos from images you create on the platform or upload. Founder David Holz announced the video model in a blog post. This generator could one day compete with other generative-AI video options, like OpenAI's Sora and Google's Flow. Subscriptions for Midjourney's V1 start at $10 per month for 3.3 hours of "fast" GPU time. According to Holz, a "video job" co

‘Wall-E With a Gun’: Midjourney Generates Videos of Disney Characters Amid Massive Copyright Lawsuit

Midjourney’s new AI-generated video tool will produce animated clips featuring copyrighted characters from Disney and Universal, WIRED has found—including video of the beloved Pixar character Wall-E holding a gun. It’s been a busy month for Midjourney. This week, the generative AI startup released its sophisticated new video tool, V1, which lets users make short animated clips from images they generate or upload. The current version of Midjourney’s AI video tool requires an image as a starting

'Wall-E With a Gun': Midjourney Generates Videos of Disney Characters Amid Massive Copyright Lawsuit

Midjourney’s new AI-generated video tool will produce animated clips featuring copyrighted characters from Disney and Universal, WIRED has found—including video of the beloved Pixar character Wall-E holding a gun. It’s been a busy month for Midjourney. This week, the generative AI startup released its sophisticated new video tool, V1, which lets users make short animated clips from images they generate or upload. The current version of Midjourney’s AI video tool requires an image as a starting

Latest Starship Explosion Drastically Decreases SpaceX's Chances of Reaching Mars Without Having to Wait Years

"One of the toughest problems to solve." With tech billionaire Elon Musk out of the White House after his disastrous turn as a bureaucrat, he can now focus on more pressing subjects — such as his SpaceX Starship rockets that keep on exploding into fiery columns of fire, with the latest dramatic failure this past Wednesday in Texas, when the massive spacecraft hadn't even left the ground yet. This recent setback ratchets up the pressure on Musk even further, who faces a hard deadline and steep

Midjourney's new animation tool turns images into short videos - here's how

Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET A growing number of AI sites and services are able to generate short videos based on your descriptions or still images. Now, you can add Midjourney to the mix. On Wednesday, the popular AI image creator announced that users can now animate their images into five-second videos. The new feature is available to all Midjourney subscribers, including those on the $10-per-month Basic plan, and offers a variety of ways to cook up cool videos. Also: I test AI tools f

Midjourney adds AI video generation

AI company Midjourney has released its first video model. This initial take on AI-generated video will allow users to animate their images, either ones made in Midjourney or uploaded from a different source. The initial results will be five-second clips that a user can opt to extend by four seconds up to four times. Videos can be generated on web only for now and require at least a $10 a month subscription to access. Introducing our V1 Video Model. It's fun, easy, and beautiful. Available at 10

Midjourney launches an AI video generator

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Midjourney has released the first version of its video generation model to the public. For now, the tool can generate short videos based on images uploaded or created on the platform, but Midjourney plans on rolling out more capabilities in the future. After creating an image using Midjourney, the service will show a new “animate” button that users

‘Surpassing all my expectations’: Midjourney releases first AI video model amid Disney, Universal lawsuit

Popular AI image generation service Midjourney has launched its first AI video generation model V1, marking a pivotal shift for the company from image generation toward full multimedia content creation. Starting today, Midjourney’s nearly 20 million users can animate images via the website, transforming their generated or uploaded stills into 5-second long clips with options for extending the generation longer up to 20 seconds (in 5 second bursts), and guiding them with text. With the launch,

Midjourney launches its first AI video generation model, V1

Midjourney, one of the most popular AI image generation startups, announced on Wednesday the launch of its much-anticipated AI video generation model, V1. V1 is an image-to-video model, in which users can upload an image — or take an image generated by one of Midjourney’s other models — and V1 will produce a set of four five-second videos based on it. Much like Midjourney’s image models, V1 is only available through Discord, and it’s only available on the web at launch. Introducing our V1 Vide

PlayStation’s concert series is coming to the US

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Sony is bringing its PlayStation concerts to the US this fall, where you can hear live performances of tracks from franchises like God of War, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon. Ticket pre-sales for PlayStation: The Concert begin on Wednesday, and you can see the full list of current tour dates on the PlayStation website. In addition to music from those big tentp

'Textbook Copyright Infringement': Disney and Universal Sue AI Image Generator Midjourney

Disney, Universal and several of their entertainment companies filed a lawsuit against popular AI creative service Midjourney on Wednesday, alleging that the company committed copyright infringement. It's a big move from power players and will no doubt create ripple effects across the AI and entertainment industries that will flow all the way to what you can create using AI tools. Midjourney is one of many AI image generators that use generative AI text-to-image technology. With an account, any

Disney and Universal Sue AI Company Midjourney for Copyright Infringement

Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, alleging that the San Francisco–based AI image generation startup is a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” that generates “endless unauthorized copies” of the studios’ work. There are already dozens of copyright lawsuits against AI companies winding through the US court system—including a class action lawsuit visual artists brought against Midjourney in 2023—but this is the first time major Hollywood studios have jumped into the fray. The