Disney has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, accusing the tech giant of using Disney's copyrighted works to train its employees. AI models.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Disney said there was copyright infringement on a “massive scale” given its claims that Google uses artificial intelligence models and services for “commercial use and copy distribution” across multiple channels, including Google Workspace apps and the YouTube mobile app.
“Google has deeply embedded its infringing video and graphics AI services into its vast line of products and services actively used by more than a billion people. This multiplies the scope of Google's infringement and damages Disney's intellectual property, not to mention the ill-gotten benefits Google receives from the unauthorized use of Disney's copyrighted works,” the letter said.
The letter comes just like Disney announced that he has reached a partnership with OpenAIin which platform users will now be able to create clips from 200 characters from Marvel, Pixar and Star wars franchises and agreed to invest $1 billion in a Google competitor. Disney sent similar letters to Meta and Character.AI and is in litigation with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery vs Midjourney and Minimax.
According to the letter, copyright infringement occurs in numerous Google artificial intelligence services that generate images and videos, using models such as Veo, Imagen and Nano Banana. Disney lists examples such as Google AI services generating “pristine” images Star wars or Marvel characters, among several others, in response to users' basic text queries. Image playback also happens via Google Gemini, which is the default virtual assistant on some smartphones, as well as YouTube.
In the letter, Disney claims it has raised its concerns with Google for months, but the tech giant has taken no action. “In any case, the Google violation only has increased during this time,” the letter says.
“Google's artificial intelligence services are designed to exploit Disney's intellectual property at no cost. Google has refused to implement any technological measures to mitigate or prevent copyright infringement, even though such measures are readily available and used by Google's competitors. Instead, Google continues to directly exploit Disney's copyrights for commercial gain,” the letter said.
