Midjourney wants Hollywood studios to reveal the details of their AI usage

In an escalating legal conflict with major Hollywood studios, AI company Midjourney is pushing for transparency regarding the studios' own AI utilization. This dispute has emerged after Disney and Universal filed lawsuits against Midjourney last year, alleging copyright infringements tied to the startup's image generation capabilities, which could inadvertently create images of their iconic characters, including Bart Simpson and Darth Vader. Warner Bros. later joined the fray with its own lawsuit. Midjourney defends its practices by claiming that using copyrighted characters for training its AI models falls under fair use. The current phase of the legal proceedings focuses on the documentation that the studios are required to produce. A judge had previously mandated that the studios disclose information about their generative AI applications, but limited this to instances where such applications resulted in consumer-facing content. In its recent filing, Midjourney is contesting this restriction, arguing that it unfairly allows the studios to selectively disclose documents that support their claims of market harm while withholding evidence that could bolster Midjourney's defense. The startup contends that the withheld documents are critical for revealing whether the studios are engaging in similar practices to those they are accusing Midjourney of. Midjourney specifically points out that if the studios are indeed developing their own image-generating AI for internal purposes, such as storyboarding or ideating for films and television, it would indicate a broader industry acceptance of training AI models on unlicensed copyrighted material. Additionally, the startup is requesting that the studios disclose all prompts used in Midjourney, along with the outputs generated, not just those associated with the contested images. David Singer, the lead attorney for the studios, has previously labeled Midjourney's request for documentation as a "fishing expedition." He clarified that the studios do not aim to impede AI technology or shutter Midjourney's operations but simply wish to stop unauthorized reproductions of their intellectual properties.