Final week, Elon Musk revealed his Robotaxis at a Tesla Cybercab occasion on a Hollywood film lot full of theatrical thrives aimed toward evoking a neon-fueled sci-fi future. A brand new lawsuit filed on Monday now accuses the tech billionaire of utilizing AI to generate Blade Runner 2049-style imagery after one of many corporations behind the movie had already turned down Musk’s request to formally license it.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court docket in Los Angeles on behalf of Alcon Leisure, which helped finance Blade Runner 2049, The New York Occasions studies. It targets each Tesla and Warner Bros. as defendants and claims the previous used AI-generated imagery based mostly on Blade Runner 2049 to infringe on Alcon Leisure’s copyright. It basically argues that Musk tried to “misappropriate the Blade Runner 2049 model to assist promote Teslas.”
The Denis Villeneuve-directed sequel to the Harrison Ford authentic starred Ryan Gosling and used daring colours and panoramic futuristic views to depict a grim cyberpunk dystopia by which each humanity and machines are affected by company exploitation and non secular malaise. However Gosling, and the film, tapped right into a cool mystique alongside the technological angst.
Musk’s allegedly infringing photos had been a part of the “We, Robotic” Tesla Cybercab occasion on October 10, held on the Warner lot, the place the corporate revealed new autonomous automobiles that it claims might be ferrying passengers round Los Angeles by the tip of the last decade. The corporate additionally touted its Optimus robots on the occasion, which it claims will be capable of perform numerous family duties for $20,000-$30,000 every as soon as they’re manufactured.
Early within the occasion, Musk used the picture of a person in a trench coat looking at a hazy, yellow-orange, desolate, city metropolis skyline with the phrases “not this” within the nook as an instance a future dystopia his merchandise are supposed to keep away from. “I really like Blade Runner, however I don’t know if we would like that future,” the Tesla CEO stated throughout the occasion, immediately referencing the franchise. “I imagine we would like that duster he’s sporting, however not the, uh, not the grim apocalypse.”
In its lawsuit, Alcon claims that the nonetheless picture was clearly interpreted as a reference to the 2017 sequel and, along with infringing on its copyright, additionally associates the 2 manufacturers in a means that the Hollywood firm deliberately needed to keep away from. Alcon stated it needed to keep away from any affiliation with Musk’s “massively amplified, extremely politicized, capricious and arbitrary habits, which typically veers into hate speech,” and likewise to not jeopardize potential model offers with different automotive corporations forward of the launch of an upcoming Blade Runner 2099 TV present on Amazon Prime. Regardless of denying Musk’s request to make use of Blade Runner 2049 in his presentation, the lawsuit states, “He did it anyway.”
Whereas Musk was as soon as recognized primarily for his electrical automobiles, he’s made information way more usually in recent times for incendiary feedback on X, previously referred to as Twitter, which he bought in 2022. When he’s not touting profitable rocket retrievals by SpaceX or enjoying Diablo IV, he’s out campaigning for Donald Trump within the 2024 presidential election. Over the weekend, Musk claimed he would give any registered voter in Pennsylvania $100 to signal a petition as a part of a advertising and marketing blitz for the just lately convicted Republican candidate.
Replace 10/23/2024 4:41 p.m. ET: Musk has weighed in on the lawsuit this week, although not its deserves. “That film sucked,” he tweeted in response to a put up in regards to the Blade Runner 2049 accusations.