The new lawsuit by major film producers against AI firm Midjourney seems to me to be a tipping point. As a person who has closely followed the emerging relationship between art and technology, though, this shouldn't come as a shock, this was almost inevitable. When Disney and Universal see their most popular characters, let's say, Shrek or Darth Vader, reimagined in an AI software program without their involvement, the AI companies are naturally not surprised they would object.
What the studios is claiming the company did, from what has been read, isn't necessarily that Midjourney trod on toes but rather that the firm copied hundreds of thousands of images that were copyrighted and made unlicensed AI versions of their IP. The lawsuit draws a comparison to a vending machine, insert what you want and the machine produces an image, whether that image closely resembles one that had taken years of work from a creative team.
We get the frustration, really. There is a thin line between inspiration and just remixing what is already there without permission. It cannot be that difficult to realize that this might potentially look like theft. We already have record labels and The New York Times condemning the same AI companies already, but the movie business itself is taking action for the first time and with some of the largest players in the game.
This isn't a case about one company or one entity of characters. This is a case about what happens when artificial intelligence meets creativity in an industry with no apparent rules. I don't think the answers will be easy, but this case will definitely shape the future. We're seeing something historic here, something that may establish who becomes a creator in the world of machines.