An AI video tool just launched, and it’s already copying Disney’s IP

Last week, AI startup Luma posted a series of videos created using its new video-generating tool Dream Machine, which the company describes as a “highly scalable and efficient Transformer model trained directly on video.”

The only problem? Generated by Dream Machine, in about 57 seconds For the trailer Monster Camp — an animated story about furry creatures traveling to sleepaway camp — includes the slightly AI-blurred but still recognizable form of Pixar’s Mike Wazowski monsters Inc. Many noticed that many of its characters and overall aesthetic were taken from the franchise, and questions quickly arose.

Was it asked to do animation in the Pixar style? Was it trained on material from Disney’s studio work? General lack of transparency One of the biggest concerns about models like this is when it comes to the Dream Machine OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s VideoPoetAnd VO It’s one of several text-to-video AI tools to have appeared in recent months.

Luma promoted its Dream Machine model as the future of filmmaking, with “high-quality, realistic shots” created by simply typing hints into a box. Watching videos showing cars racing down a disintegrating highway or an oddly narrated sci-fi short, you can understand why ardent fans of this technology call it a new innovation.

Currently, Luma is encouraging people to sign up and play with the Dream Machine for free, but the company has taken a few steps beyond that. “Pro” and other levels which charge users for more features. We contacted Luma for comment on where it obtains the footage to train the Dream Machine, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

Disney hasn’t commented publicly on what Luma is going to do, and it’s possible the company hasn’t even looked into it. But at a time when people are pushing for more transparency about the datasets that power AI tools like the one Luma is building, things like Monster Camp It’s hard not to see the generative AI ecosystem as prone to plagiarism.

Correction, June 18: This story initially contained incorrect information about when the AI ​​videos were first posted. This was last week, not the weekend.