By Movieguide® Staff
Charlie Schultz
Disney and NBCUniversal filed a federal lawsuit against AI company Midjourney on Wednesday, June 11, claiming that the company has used beloved characters such as Elsa, Spiderman and even the Minions to train its AI system to copy and recreate them without permission.
Midjourney’s ability to manipulate Disney characters allows your children to come across their favorite character behaving completely out of character.
According to Disney, Midjourney displays “hundreds, if not thousands, of images generated by its Image Service at the request of its subscribers that infringe Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works.”
This case is a wake up call to how artificial intelligence is misused in entertainment.
Disney and Universal stated that “Midjourney’s conduct misappropriates Disney’s and Universal’s intellectual property and threatens to upend the bedrock incentives of U.S. copyright law that drive American leadership in movies, television, and other creative arts.”
The lawsuit also mentioned that “Plaintiffs have asked Midjourney to stop infringing their copyrighted works and, at a minimum, to adopt technological measures, which other AI services have implemented to prevent generation of infringing material.” But according to Disney and Universal, Midjourney is focused on its own bottom line and ignored Plaintiffs’ demands,” stated in the lawsuit.
These images are not creative lookalikes or copies made by the AI company but exact replicas of the characters in these beloved TV shows and movies.
“I really think the only thing that can stop AI companies doing what they’re doing is the law,” said Ed Newton-Rex, the CEO of nonprofit organization Fairly Trained. “If these lawsuits are successful, that is what will hopefully stop AI companies from exploiting people’s life’s work.”
However, this lawsuit is about more than just Midjourney doing something that’s not morally correct; this is about protecting the values and truths our children receive through entertainment. When technology is allowed to mimic authentic content, it can be hard for our children to tell the difference.
“Most of the worldviews of these [AI] organizations are antithetical to the majority of Americans,” Movieguide® CEO Robby Baehr said during an episode of “The Familyguide Podcast.” “They’ve trained these [programs] on junk.”
As AI continues to grow in its influence, we must remember to not let our moral guidance be given over to these machines or apps, but let it be prompted through Christ.
Read Next: Why Parents Need To Be ‘Knowledgeable,’ ‘Careful’ About AI Technology
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