In case you missed it, OpenAI\u2019s latest video generating tool Sora 2 launched earlier this week, and instantly did gangbusters at the slop office.<\/p>\n
Users gleefully rushed to generate loads of feverish clips that place OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in all sorts of absurd scenarios \u2014 which we covered extensively in another blog<\/a> \u2014 and with such ferocity that they\u2019ve basically taken over AI corners of social media.<\/p>\n And so rather than demonstrating a tool that will revolutionize the arts, as AI companies so often claim their image and text-regurgitating tech will do, the social media buzz around Sora 2 has been a delirious case in point of how people largely use it to churn out dumb and edgy memes<\/a> and total nonsense \u2014 slop, in the parlance \u2014 not to mention potentially damaging misinformation, such as faking convincing surveillance footage<\/a> of people committing crimes.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s also raised the specter of another issue that could be fatal to the company\u2019s very existence: copyright infringement.<\/p>\n As our first piece of evidence, we submit this alarming Sora-made video of Altman grilling a slain and disturbingly lifelike Pikachu.<\/p>\n \u201cPikachu on the grill here,\u201d says the AI Altman, as what is unmistakably the iconic yellow Pok\u00e9mon lies sizzling beneath his prodding tongs. \u201cIt\u2019s already got a beautiful char and it smells like somebody plugged in a chicken.\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna carve it into some thick steaks,\u201d he continues, briefly showing a closeup of medium-done Pikachu meat. \u201cCrust on the outside, pink and juice in the middle. Cheers.\u201d<\/p>\n This is far from the only Sora video spoofing Nintendo characters. Many others depict<\/a> Mario and Luigi<\/a>. Justine Moore, an investing partner at the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, gushed<\/a> that her favorite Sora trend was \u201cputting Pikachu in every movie,\u201d sharing examples like \u201cSaving Private Pikachu<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Whatever a user\u2019s favorite Pokemon is, it\u2019ll be in their little video<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of Sora\u2019s clips show that their creators are fully aware that their go-to slop machine de jour is making a mockery of copyright law \u2014 in fact, maybe that\u2019s part of how they get their kicks.<\/p>\n In a video<\/a> that shows dozens of recognizable Pokemon bounding across a field, for instance, a deepfaked Altman watches on with a worried grimace.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope Nintendo doesn\u2019t sue us,\u201d the AI Altman says.<\/p>\n The success of the generative AI industry has been predicated on having essentially free access to every piece of art, writing, and video that\u2019s ever been uploaded to the internet \u2014 and major players are paranoid that they\u2019ll someday have to pay the price for that. In August, the Claude chatbot maker Anthropic pleaded to an appeals court<\/a> that having to dole out damages to all the writers whose books it trained on without permission would \u201cfinancially ruin\u201d the entire AI industry, spelling out \u2014 loud and clear \u2014 the existential angst surrounding IP.<\/p>\n Needless to say, then, that OpenAI is playing with fire. Nintendo in particular, as one of the biggest video game publishers in the world, is notoriously hard-nosed about protecting its intellectual property<\/a>. Its iconic video game character Kirby, in fact, is named after its attorney<\/a> who won a key copyright suit against Universal Pictures in the 1980s.<\/p>\n It\u2019s ruthlessly pursued anyone it perceives as using its IP without permission ever since.\u00a0And there\u2019s a whole graveyard filled with enthusiasts who shared copies of its game to play on emulators<\/a>, a term for software that simulates old game consoles, or the developers that make them. It\u2019s even gone after emulators that preserved its games that were no longer for sale anywhere<\/a> and were considered \u201cabandonware\u201d \u2014 even though sharing these dead games, you\u2019d think, would have no meaningful impact on its bottom line.<\/p>\n Gamers have long resented Nintendo for its litigious streak. So it says something that some, after witnessing a deluge of AI bastardizations of Pok\u00e9mon, are now hoping that the Japanese corporation will sic its legal team on OpenAI.<\/p>\n \u201cAlright Nintendo it may be time to assemble your famed lawyer squad,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Paul Tassi, who covers games at Forbes.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the one time I\u2019m going to need Nintendo\u2019s lawyers to lock the f*ck in,\u201d wrote<\/a> another user.<\/p>\n Whether Nintendo decides to pursue legal action is unknown at this point. But just the other day, fellow IP powerhouse Disney issued a cease and desist letter<\/a> to the chatbot platform Character.AI, demanding that it remove all its AI companions that imitate its copyrighted characters. Disney also brought a copyright suit against the image and video AI tool Midjourney<\/a> in June \u2014 so entertainment heavyweights have shown that they\u2019re willing to pick a fight with big names in AI.<\/p>\n