Disney has accused Google of committing copyright infringement on a “massive scale,” claiming that its AI models have produced images resembling characters from popular franchises like Frozen, Deadpool, and Star Wars, according to a report from Variety. In a cease-and-desist letter sent to Google on Wednesday, Disney is demanding that the tech giant stop allegedly infringing on its copyrighted works.
Interestingly, Disney sent this notice just one day before announcing a billion-dollar deal with OpenAI, which will enable Sora AI users to create videos featuring over 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars. These AI-generated videos are also set to appear on Disney Plus, as teased by CEO Bob Iger last month.
The letter states, “Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services.” Disney emphasized, “Disney will not tolerate the unauthorized commercial exploitation of its copyrighted characters and works by so-called AI services.”
In addition to Google, Disney has previously sent cease-and-desist letters to other companies like Meta and Character.AI.
