"OpenAI Is Trying To Get Sued" - Nintendo IP Floods Sora 2 Video Generation App 1Image: OpenAI / Sora 2

OpenAI recently released its dedicated Sora App, which is being pitched as a rival to TikTok and Instagram, with the key difference being that all the videos are generated via the Sora 2 video generation model.

As is the case with many of these Generative AI tools, Sora 2 has been trained on millions of hours of human-made footage which already exists online, almost always without permission – and that includes copyrighted material created by the likes of Sega, Nintendo and Microsoft.

Sora 2 has only been available for a day or so, and most social network feeds are already flooded with videos generated using the tool, many of which blatantly steal intellectual property, including Nintendo’s.

This fact hasn’t been lost on the many people on social media.

It’s not just Nintendo’s IP which is being infringed here; Sonic appears in many Sora 2-generated videos, too.

OpenAI has previously stated that it has adopted an ‘opt-out’ policy regarding IP – that means IP owners need to contact OpenAI to have their IP removed from the Sora 2 training database. Critics argue that it’s basically the equivalent of robbing a bank and only returning the money when you’re told it’s not yours.

It’s not just the world of video games which is being replicated here without permission; anime and movies are also being reproduced, thanks to the fact that advanced video models like this are betraying their training data with more accuracy than ever before.

It remains to be seen if the notoriously litigious Nintendo will take this lying down, but many AI sceptics are predicting legal action from multiple IP owners in response to Sora 2’s flood of cloned material. Last year, takedowns were filed against AI-generated images featuring Mario and other Nintendo characters.

Generative AI is a hot topic in the world of video games these days, with a recent report claiming that over half of Japanese developers are using AI in some form. Nintendo has maintained that it won’t be making use of the controversial technology, at least for the time being.

Damien McFerran

Damien has been writing professionally about tech and video games since 2007 and oversees all of Hookshot Media’s sites from an editorial perspective. He’s also the editor of Time Extension, the network’s newest site, which – paradoxically – is all about gaming’s past glories.