Tesla’s recent We, Robot presentation has run into trouble, with one of the production companies behind Blade Runner 2049 suing Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, for copyright infringement.
Tesla used the glitzy October 10 event to unveil its Cybercab and Robovan, and also to showcase the latest version of its Optimus humanoid robot.
Hosted by Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood, the presentation included imagery that Blade Runner 2049 production company Alcon Entertainment alleges Tesla created using generative-AI and stills from the seven-year-old sci-fi movie.
Alcon says in the lawsuit that just hours before the event kicked off on the evening of October 10, Tesla and WBD asked for permission to use “an iconic still image” from the movie. Alcon quickly rejected the request.
The company explained its decision in the suit, saying: “Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account,” adding that “Alcon did not want Blade Runner 2049 to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
Following the rejection, Tesla is accused of then feeding imagery from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to create a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds (see it in the video below) during the We, Robot live stream. With the image showing, Musk even referenced the movie franchise, adding that he’s hoping for a “fun, exciting” future rather than the dystopian one depicted in so many sci-fi films.
Alcon also said in its suit that it wasn’t surprising that Musk referenced Blade Runner 2049 during the We, Robot event, as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”
The accused parties have yet to comment publicly on Alcon’s lawsuit, and it’s not yet clear what level of damages the production company is seeking.
