Disney and Universal Sue A.I. Firm Midjourney for Copyright Infringement

Disney and Universal sued a prominent artificial intelligence start-up for copyright infringement on Wednesday, bringing Hollywood belatedly into the increasingly intense legal battle over generative A.I.

The movie companies sued Midjourney, an A.I. image generator that has millions of registered users. The 110-page lawsuit contends that Midjourney “helped itself to countless” copyrighted works to train its software, which allows people to create images (and soon videos) that “blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters.”

“Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism,” the companies said in the lawsuit, which was filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles.

Midjourney could not immediately be reached for comment.

A.I. startups like Midjourney, which was founded in 2021, train their software with data scraped from the internet and elsewhere, often without compensating creators. The practice has resulted in lawsuits from authors, artists, record labels and news organizations, among others. (The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims, saying their actions fall under “fair use.”)

But Disney and Universal are the first major Hollywood studios to file copyright infringement lawsuits.

Creative workers in the entertainment capital have been increasingly frustrated about studio silence on the matter. “They have not protested the theft of this copyrighted material by the A.I. companies, and it’s a capitulation on their part to still be on the sidelines,” Meredith Stiehm, president of the Writers Guild of America West, told The Los Angeles Times in February.

The Midjourney lawsuit indicates that Disney and Universal, the two most powerful traditional entertainment companies, have been biding their time. While taking detailed aim at Midjourney for infringing on prominent characters like Darth Vader, the Minions, the “Frozen” princesses, Shrek and Homer Simpson, the lawsuit reads like a shot across the bow to A.I. companies in general.

“We are bullish on the promise of A.I. technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity,” Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s general counsel, said in an email. “But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an A.I. company does not make it any less infringing.”

Kim Harris, general counsel of NBCUniversal, which includes the Universal movie studio, said in a separate email, “We are bringing this action today to protect the hard work of all the artists whose work entertains and inspires us and the significant investment we make in our content.”

This is breaking news. Check back for updates.