Blade Runner 2049 producer sues Elon Musk for using AI to infringe copyright

Blade Runner 2049
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Elon Musk and Warner Bros are being sued by the producer of Blade Runner 2049 for allegedly using AI to steal images from the film.


On the 10th October, Elon Muskā€™s electric car firm Tesla unveiled its latest venture, Cybercab, in a livestream which took place on Warner Brosā€™ backlot. Beforehand, the eventā€™s organisers had asked Alcon Entertainment for permission to use images from director Denis Villeneuveā€™s 2017 dystopian sequel Blade Runner 2049; Alcon refused.

Alcon is now suing Tesla, claiming it used generative AI to create images using Blade Runner 2049 as a basis. Whatā€™s more, Warner Bros, the distributor of Blade Runner 2049, is also part of the lawsuit as the presentation took place on its studio lot.

You can see the image that Alconā€™s cross about in Teslaā€™s video below ā€“ it appears at the 5:44 mark. Weā€™ll let you decide whether or not it looks uncannily like a shot from Blade Runner 2049 or not.

This isnā€™t the first time that Musk has been sued for copyright infringement, but the tone of Alconā€™s legal complaint, and its singling out of Musk personally, is quite striking. ā€œIt all exuded an odor of thinly contrived excuse to link Teslaā€™s cybercab to strong Hollywood brands at a time when Tesla and Musk are on the outs with Hollywood,ā€ a summary in the document reads. ā€œWhich of course is exactly what it was.ā€

You can read Alconā€™s lawsuit against Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros via Deadlineā€™s server (PDF). It really is quite eye-opening.

This battle has now reached the world of film, and as with AI video-creation tools becoming increasingly sophisticated, this case will act as an outlier for the direction things could go in. As generative AI becomes more advanced, studios are going to find their IP being used in ways that could well take these valuable creations far beyond the limits of their control.

Alcon Entertainment is currently producing a multi-million dollar Blade Runner 2099 TV show with Amazon, and has been vocally keen to protect the Blade Runner brand from being associated with divisive figures such as Musk and his various products. As the company writes in its suit, “If, as here, a company or its principals do not actually agree with Musk’s extreme political and social views, then a potential brand affiliation with Tesla is even more fraught. Alcon did not want BR2049 to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”

Itā€™s likely that this one will take some time to resolve, but the outcome could be significant. Weā€™ll bring you more on this story as we hear it.

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