Disney and Universal sue AI firm Midjourney over images
Darth Vader is one of the characters the two studios allege Midjourney uses to generate images
It is part of the entertainment industry's ongoing love-hate relationship with AI. Many studios want to make use of the technology but are concerned that their creations could be stolen.
The two studios claim Midjourney's tool makes "innumerable" copies of characters including Darth Vader from Star Wars, Frozen's Elsa, and the Minions from Despicable Me.
Disney and Universal are suing artificial intelligence (AI) firm Midjourney over its image generator, which the Hollywood giants allege is a "bottomless pit of plagiarism".
In the lawsuit filed in federal district court in Los Angeles, the studios gave examples of Midjourney-generated images that included Disney characters such as Star Wars' Yoda and Marvel's Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man.
Disney's chief legal officer Horacio Gutierrez said the firm was "optimistic" about how AI "can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity".
"But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it's done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing," he said.
In the complaint, Disney and Universal said Midjourney made $300m (£221m) last year alone and is planning a "soon-to-be-released video service".
Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh said: "A lot of the images that Midjourney produces just seem to be copies of copyright characters that might be in new locations or with a new background."
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