According to reports online, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a YouTuber against Nvidia alleging that the tech company has been illegally (and very unethically) training its AI video model on his content.
While this is just an allegation and a lawsuit currently, it would of course be huge news if found to be true.
Nvidia has denied any allegations of wrongdoing, yet regardless of what happens with this lawsuit, it does shine a light on an ongoing conversation and debate within the world of AI and the rules and ethics governing how these AI models are being trained.
An Accusation of Unethical Business Practices
Another interesting semantic element of this lawsuit is that the YouTuber in question—David Millette—is not directly alleging copyright infringement against Nvidia. Instead, Millette in the lawsuit is alleging Nvidia of unethical business practices by scaping videos from his YouTube without asking the copyright holders.
This all comes after reports earlier this month indicated that Nvidia had indeed been scraping videos from YouTube and Netflix as a way to train their Cosmos AI model, which is still a work in progress but could likely end up being a new type of AI video generator.
Millette claims that there could be over 100 fellow YouTubers who could eventually be a part of the lawsuit and is seeking an injunction of the unauthorized use of his videos, along with restitution and other damages from an amount he claims exceeds $5 million.
What to Watch For Moving Forward
Obviously, this is big news, and much bigger news depending on the outcome of this lawsuit. Millette is also the YouTuber who has similarly filed a class action lawsuit against OpenAI as well for allegedly transcribing millions of YouTube videos without the consent of YouTube or YouTubers like himself.
As AI technologies continue to evolve and push further into the world of filmmaking and video production, it’ll be important for lines to be drawn not just for what these companies can legally do—but also for what is going to be defined as ethical going forward.
Author: Jourdan Aldredge
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
