Lawyers representing basketball star LeBron James have sent a cease-and-desist letter to a generative AI company for use of his likeness.
The letter came after several perverse videos made the rounds online that featured James and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry. Per SF Gate:
As 404 Media first reported on Thursday, these nonconsensual, AI-generated videos came from a tool known as Interlink AI, which runs on the AI generation platform FlickUp. Interlink’s Discord community had a channel with step-by-step instructions for making fake footage of James, and the tool’s creators had uploaded AI models specifically designed for mimicking various NBA stars, the report said.
One of the videos that received millions of views on Instagram — the video and account that posted it have since been deleted, according to 404 Media — involved an AI-generated James standing by as an AI-generated Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted Steph Curry in prison. Even the moderators of the Discord got involved with the NBA-centric creations: In a Discord announcement in April, they attached a video of an AI-generated pregnant James saying “Curry come quick, my baby is being born.”
While the videos went viral, the threat of a cease-and-desist from the LeBron James legal team indicates that AI may be coming head-to-head with the roadblock that will be copyright, trademark, and intellectual property. For instance, this past June, Interlink removed realistic models of several celebrities from their platform, citing “legal issues.”
“Jason Stacks, the founder of FlickUp, later told 404 Media that the issue in question was a cease-and-desist letter from James’ lawyers,” reported SF Gate. “Stacks has not publicly shared the letter beyond a folded version of it in an Instagram post about the legal threat. Though deepfakes of celebrities have prompted pushback before, this is one of the first cases in which a high-profile individual threatened direct legal action.”
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