Disney and Universal sue Midjourney

👋 Good morning/evening (wherever you are). It’s Wednesday.

Disney and NBCUniversal sued Midjourney for mass copyright infringement, accusing it of generating unauthorized images of iconic characters like Darth Vader, Elsa, and the Minions. The studios called the platform a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.”

It’s the first major lawsuit from Hollywood studios targeting an AI visual tool.

Key highlights from the 110-page complaint:

• First major AI IP suit: Disney and NBCUniversal accuse Midjourney of mass copyright infringement using characters like Darth Vader, Elsa, and Shrek

• Side-by-side proof: The complaint includes direct comparisons showing AI replicas that are not transformative

• Ignored warnings: Studios say they asked Midjourney to add protections but the company kept releasing higher-quality versions

• Video concerns: The lawsuit focuses on images but points to Midjourney's upcoming AI video tool as the next risk

• Larger precedent: This case questions whether AI companies can profit from copyrighted content without licenses

Why Midjourney?

• No filters or guardrails: Unlike Adobe or OpenAI, Midjourney does little to block copyrighted outputs

• Easy to document misuse: Its Discord setup makes it simple to capture prompts and results showing infringement

• Refused to self-regulate: Disney and Universal say they contacted Midjourney, but it ignored their requests

• Timing matters: Midjourney is about to launch a video generator, and the studios want to act before that happens

• Money is on the table: With an estimated $300 million in subscription revenue, Midjourney gives the studios a strong financial case

Disney’s top legal officer made the company’s stance clear: “Piracy is piracy.”

In a strongly worded statement, general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said Disney supports the promise of AI when used responsibly, but stressed that decades of creative investment deserve protection under copyright law. Infringement by an AI company, he said, is still infringement.

Switching gears:

A week ago I posted one of the best prompt theory videos I’ve ever seen.

Well, here’s another one that takes it one step further…it’s called The Prompt Floor.

Posted on LinkedIn.

OK let’s keep going ↓

Here’s what you should know:

• Amazon announces 3 new AI tools to speed up delivery

  Wellspring uses generative AI to improve delivery location accuracy, a new foundation model boosts demand forecasting by up to 20%, and agentic AI enables robots to understand natural language, making operations faster, safer, and more efficient.

• Starbucks to roll out AI assistant for baristas

  Starbucks plans to roll out a generative artificial intelligence assistant created with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform to 35 locations this month as part of its strategy to simplify baristas’ jobs and speed up service in its cafe

• Meta’s new V-JEPA 2 AI model

  Meta trained V-JEPA 2 using video, which helped the model learn important patterns in the physical world, including how people interact with objects, how objects move in the physical world and how objects interact with other objects. When deployed on robots in our labs, Meta found that robots can use V-JEPA 2 to perform tasks like reaching, picking up an object and placing an object in a new location.

• Nvidia to build first industrial AI cloud in Germany

  Nvidia plans major AI expansion in Europe: opening 20 AI factories, growing tech centers in 7 countries, partnering with Mistral, and predicting a 10x increase in European AI capacity within two years.

• The Browser Company launches its AI-first browser, Dia

  Unlike Arc’s experimental UX, Dia takes a more familiar approach with a built-in AI assistant that helps users plan, research, and navigate the web more efficiently. It’s now in beta for macOS Arc users.

• Northwestern launches university-wide AI and data science network

  The Northwestern Network for Collaborative Intelligence (NNCI) will bring together University experts in data science and AI to empower all Northwestern faculty and students to use and benefit from AI tools in their work. The NNCI aims to create a robust ecosystem of collaboration between Northwestern researchers and external organizations — including businesses, government agencies and nonprofits — to leverage AI in addressing societal needs. The network also will help to ensure that all students have access to a baseline education in data science and AI to prepare them for the demands of an evolving workforce.

• AMD Advancing AI 2025 Keynote (June 12, 2025 @ 12:30pm ET)

  Watch CEO Dr. Lisa Su, AMD executives, and industry luminaries unveil the AMD vision for Advancing Al, insights into the market landscape, and updates on our end-to-end Al solutions, products, and ecosystem.

• Meta’s AI app has a video editing feature

  You can now use preset AI video editing prompts to transform your outfit, location, lighting and more, then share or post your edited video.

• Google expands AI tools for nonprofits in 100+ countries

  Google for Nonprofits will be expanding to 100 more countries and is introducing new Workspace for Nonprofits and Ad Grants features free of charge to support nonprofits in furthering their missions.

• Databricks launches Agent Bricks

  Rather than managing the overwhelming complexity of agent development, teams can focus on what matters most: defining their agent's purpose and providing strategic guidance on quality through natural language feedback. Agent Bricks handles the rest, automatically generating evaluation suites and auto-optimizing the quality.

• Accenture launches its Distiller agentic AI framework

  The distiller framework encapsulates what is needed across the end-to-end agent lifecycle including agent memory management, multi-agent collaboration, agentic workflow management, model customization and evaluation, governance and observability, and cross-platform interoperability.

• AI-powered animation studio Toonstar signs with WME

  The L.A.-based company behind YouTube’s ‘StEvEn & Parker’ is partnering with the agency to scale up its slate, their first collaboration a project from comedian Nigel Ng.

• L’Oréal and Nvidia collaborate to supercharge beauty with AI

  The companies will initially collaborate in two areas: L’Oréal’s AI-spun ads and product recommendations.

The numbers:

• Crusoe, a key partner in the $500B Stargate project, secured a $750M credit line from Brookfield to expand AI data centers powered by Nvidia chips.

• Cyera raised $540M at a $6B valuation to expand its AI-driven data security and partner network.

• Coco Robotics, backed by Sam Altman, raised $80M to scale its delivery robot fleet, bringing total funding to over $120M and deepening its data partnership with OpenAI.

• Wandercraft raised $75M to expand its AI-driven exoskeletons and humanoid robots for rehab, personal mobility, and industry.

• Runwise raised $55M to expand its AI platform for buildings, delivering $100M in energy savings across 10,000 sites.

Thought starters:

• Accelerating AI Leadership with David Sacks and Dave Levy

• Transparency around using AI needs to be specific to maintain trust

• Exploring the Dangers of AI in Mental Health Care

• Saab and Helsing pit AI-piloted warplane against real fighter pilot

Meme of the day:

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

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