Content Creators Sue "Snapchat" for Copyright Infringement in AI Model Training

SadaNews - Several content creators on YouTube have filed a new lawsuit against Snap Inc., accusing the company of using their videos without permission to train its artificial intelligence models, joining a list of major tech companies being legally pursued by creators for similar practices.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, who are content creators managing three YouTube channels with over 6.2 million subscribers combined, accuse Snap of utilizing their visual content to develop AI features, including the Imagine Lens tool that allows for image editing through text commands.

The same group had previously filed lawsuits against companies like Nvidia, Meta, and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, on similar allegations regarding the use of content without authorization to train AI models, according to a report published by TechCrunch that was reviewed by Al Arabiya Business.

In the proposed class action, filed on Friday in the federal court for the Central District of California, the plaintiffs noted Snap's reliance on massive datasets, primarily the HD-VILA-100M set, which was designed strictly for academic and research purposes.

The content creators clarified that the use of this data for commercial purposes, as is the case with Snap's applications, constitutes a violation of the use terms and licensing policies of the YouTube platform, asserting that the company has exceeded the technical restrictions imposed on content extraction.

The lawsuit seeks legal damages, in addition to a permanent injunction preventing Snap from continuing any alleged copyright infringements in the future.

The case is led by the creators of the popular h3h3 channel, which has over 5.5 million subscribers, alongside MrShortGame Golf and Golfholics, both specialized in golf content.

This lawsuit comes amid a rising wave of legal disputes between content creators and AI companies, which have included publishers, authors, newspapers, artists, and digital content platforms.

According to the non-profit organization Copyright Alliance, over 70 cases of copyright infringement have been filed against companies operating in the AI field.

While some cases have been resolved in favor of tech companies, as seen in a previous dispute between Meta and a group of writers, others have ended in financial settlements, such as the case faced by Anthropic. Many other cases remain under consideration in U.S. courts.