Blade Runner 2049 AI Lawsuit Rules That Elon Musk’s Tesla Can Still Be Sued for Copyright Infringement

Things are getting too meta in this dystopian landscape. Blade Runner 2049‘s production company Alcon Entertainment has sued Tesla and Elon Musk for allegedly feeding stills from the Warner Bros. picture to an AI image generator to create promotional material for the car manufacturer. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Alcon’s trademark claim, while dismissed, has prompted a re-examining of the peculiar similarities between Blade Runner 2049 and Tesla’s ad campaign that allows smaller cases of copyright infringement to continue against the company. The image in contention is a still of Ryan Gosling’s Officer K standing in the orange-hued wasteland expanse next to a futuristic car. The suit from Alcon claims that the still was used to create “unlicensed promotional materials” while including film distributor Warner Bros. Discovery for “facilitating the partnership” in a violation of Alcon Entertainment’s trademarks. The judge ruled in favor of Warner Bros. and Tesla, which had partn ... Read full article.