While an AI art apocalypse sometimes seems inescapable, there are occasional glimmers of hope. In the same week that OpenAI launched its Sora social media app with 100% AI content, Disney was able to successfully pressure the less known Character.AI to remove its IP.
The animation giant sent a cease-and-desist letter to the platform, which allows users interact with chatbot characters generated by AI. The AI startup's swift compliance is encouraging, showing that at least some AI platforms fear that they might be in the wrong legally.
According to Axios, a law firm representing Disney wrote to Character.AI demanding that it cease using copyrighted characters without authorisation.
“Character.ai chose to systematically reproduce, monetize, and exploit Disney’s characters, that are protected by copyrights and trademarks, without any authorization, in a way that is anathema to the very essence of the Disney brand and legacy," the letter states.
The company said Character.AI chatbots impersonated characters such as Moana, Princess Elsa from Frozen, Moana, Spider-Man alter ego Peter Parker and Darth Vader from Star Wars.
In response, Character.AI said in a statement that it responds “swiftly to requests to remove content that rightsholders report to us.”
The company's defence for the Disney characters being there in the first place was pretty weak. It compared them to fan fiction.
“Some of those characters are original creations, and some are inspired by existing characters that people love,” it said. “It’s like fan fiction, but in an interactive form.”
But fan fiction is crafted by fans themselves for no profit, not by an AI model trained on copyright material.
Not all AI companies have been so willing to comply with demands from companies even as big as Disney. A joint lawsuit lodged by Disney and Universal against Midjourney has still to be heard.
But Character.AI's response suggests it may have feared that it was on dubious ground legally. Although, it may also be that it wants to avoid bad blood with potential future partners.
"We want to partner with the industry and rightsholders to empower them to bring their characters to our platform," it said. "Our goal is to give IP owners the tools to create controlled, engaging and revenue-generating experiences from deep fandom for their characters and stories, expanding their reach using our new, interactive format."
Disney's been criticised for its own AI experiments, and it hasn't always been the best champion for artists. Nevertheless, it's big players like Disney have the lawyers and money available to fight to protect IP, which could be to the benefit of artists everywhere if a legal precedent can be won.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
