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Warner Bros. Discovery sues AI firm for Batman, Superman copyright infringement | Business

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Warner Bros. Discovery has joined a key copyright infringement case that could test the legal bounds of using artificial intelligence to create digital replicas of well-known characters.

The company on Thursday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against AI company Midjourney Inc., alleging its image generator produces blatant rip-offs of Warner’s well-known and copyright-protected characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Scooby-Doo.

With the suit, Warner Bros. Discovery joins a legal fight brought in June by Walt Disney Co. and Comcast’s Universal Pictures. The Disney and Universal lawsuit marked the first salvo by major studios to elevate the legal struggle over AI-enabled intellectual property, calling it content theft.

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The addition of Warner Bros. Discovery could boost Disney’s and Universal’s case. The three entertainment industry leaders control much of the most valuable intellectual property in Hollywood.

Disney’s stable includes Star Wars, Woody the Cowboy, Winnie the Pooh, the Simpsons and Disney princesses. Universal boasts such beasts as the Hulk, Shrek and the Minions.

Warner Bros. controls characters from DC Comics , Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera .

It sued on behalf of Warner Bros. , DC Comics, Turner Entertainment Co., Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., and the Cartoon Network. The company, which asked for a jury trial, is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction.

The companies allege the four-year-old San Francisco firm Midjourney, which has millions of paid subscribers, built its business off decades of hard work by Hollywood artists, writers and studios.

Midjourney, on its website, describes itself as “an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.” Midjourney offers its subscribers use of an image generator to create high-resolution digital depictions, including famous characters like Batman.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Universal allege that Midjourney trained its generative AI programs by using their copyrighted works. They contend that Midjourney-enabled creations are almost identical to their original copyrighted cartoons. Warner Bros.’ lawsuit included side-by-side renderings of its characters and Midjourney’s reproductions to illustrate the identical details, such as the color of Scooby-Doo’s collar and fur.

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Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences, bringing to life the vision and passion of our creative partners,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. “Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.”

Warner Bros. Discovery pointed to the value of its franchises, including its DC Comics movies. Films featuring the DC Extended Universe, which were released from 2018 through 2023, generated more than $7 billion in global ticket sales. Each film earned an average of $479 million, the lawsuit said.

“Only Warner Bros. Discovery has the right under U.S. Copyright law to build a business around reproducing, preparing derivative works, distributing, publicly displaying, and performing images and videos featuring its copyrighted characters,” the company said in its lawsuit.

Such exclusive rights and protections allow Warner Bros. Discovery and other studios to make massive investments in content, the lawsuit said, adding: “That is the cornerstone of the U.S. Copyright Act.”

Hollywood performers and writers in recent years have voiced grave concerns about the rapid development of generative AI. The technology is expected to revolutionize the film industry and lead to fewer jobs.

Curbs on the use of generative AI became a sticking point in the historic 2023 strikes by actors and writers.

Disney and Universal applauded Warner Bros. for joining their legal battle.

“Disney is committed to protecting our creators and innovators, and we’re pleased to be joined by Warner Bros. Discovery in the fight against Midjourney’s blatant copyright infringement,” Disney said in a statement.



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Robinhood CEO Says AI Won’t Fully Take Over Trading

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AI isn’t ready to take over all the human aspects of trading, said Robinhood’s CEO.

In an interview with Bloomberg Wealth released on Wednesday, Vlad Tenev reiterated his view that people don’t always trade to make money and that there will always be a human aspect to business.

“Most of the time you’re not doing it just because you want to make money,” he said. “You also love trading and you’re you’re extremely passionate about it.”

He added: “I don’t think there’s going to be a future where AI just does all of your thinking, all of your financial planning, all the strategizing for you.”

Tenev, who cofounded the brokerage platform in 2013, said that AI could be a bigger platform shift than mobile and cloud technologies. He said that while every company will quickly become an AI company, AI won’t completely take over trading.

“It’ll be a helpful assistant to a trader and also to your broader financial life,” he said. “But I think the humans will ultimately be calling the shots.”

Tenev made similar remarks about how investors “legitimately enjoy trading” in an August interview with Axios.

On Tuesday, Robinhood announced it was building a social media platform where users can post their trades and track what other investors, including politicians, are buying or selling.

Other CEOs are also wary of pronouncing AI the future of trading.

Ken Griffin, the founder and CEO of Citadel, said he doesn’t think AI will revolutionize the investment business.

“Do we use it in our investment business? A little bit, a little bit. I can’t say it’s been game-changing,” Griffin said in a May interview with Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“It saves some time. It’s a productivity enhancement tool. It’s nice, I don’t think it’s going to revolutionize most of what we do in finance,” Griffin added.

On the topic of AI and trading, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has said that AI has been a big boost to productivity in the investing business.

In an interview with CNBC last year, he said that 40 years ago, when he started the banking business, it took six hours to compare two stocks. Now, it takes an instant, he said.

The firm has already launched ventures that could change how Wall Street makes deals. Louisa AI, a startup founded within the firm six years ago, helps bankers and investors analyze millions of articles and employees’ knowledge to identify deals.





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AI Breakthrough Promises More Consistent Results—A Win for Small Businesses – Times Square Chronicles

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AI Breakthrough Promises More Consistent Results—A Win for Small Businesses  Times Square Chronicles



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Aha moments, the ‘first ten hours’, and other pro tips from business leaders building AI-ready workforces

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As businesses face pressure to bring new AI tools on board, they have the dual challenge of effectively incorporating the technology into their operations and of helping their workforce make the best use of the technology. 

Longstanding methods for assessing the skills and performance of an employee, as well as hiring practices, are being upended and re-imagined, according to business leaders who spoke at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday in Park City, Utah. 

Technical skills, contrary to what you might think, are not paramount in the age of AI. In fact, for many employers, technical skills are becoming less important.

“For the first time this summer on our platform we saw a shift,” said Hayden Brown, CEO of Upwork, an online jobs marketplace for freelancers. In the past, when Upwork asked employers on its platform about the most important skills they were hiring for, the answer invariably involved deep expertise in certain technical areas, Brown said. “For the first time this summer, it’s now soft skills. It’s human skills; it’s things like problem solving, judgement, creativity, taste.” 

Jim Rowan, the head of AI at consulting firm Deloitte, which sponsored the Brainstorm discussion, said an employee’s “fluency” should not be an end goal in itself. More important is intellectual curiosity around new tools and technology.

And that’s something that needs to start at the top.

“We’ve done a lot of work with executive teams to make sure the top levels of the organization and the boards are actually familiar with AI,” said Rowan. “That helps because then they can communicate better with their teams and see what they’re doing.” 

For Toni Vanwinkle, VP of Digital Employee Experience at Adobe, it’s critical for employees at all levels of an organization to have an “aha moment” with AI technology. And the best way to bring that about is for each employee to get their “first ten hours” in. 

“Go play with it,” Vanwinkle says. “Sort your email box, take the notes in your meeting, create a marketing campaign, whatever it is that you do.” Through that initial process of personal exploration, you start to understand the potential of the technology, she says.

The next step, Vanwinkle says, is collaboration, discussions, and experimentation among colleagues within the same departments or functionalities.

“This whole spirit of experiment, learn fast. That twitch muscle can turn into something of value when people talk openly,” Vanwinkle says.

The importance of embracing experimentation, and fostering it as a value within the organization, was echoed by Indeed chief information officer Anthony Moisant.

“I think about the pilots we run, most of them fail. And I’m not embarrassed at all to say that,” Moisant says. It all comes down to what a particular organization is optimizing for, and in the case of Indeed, Moisant says, “what we go for is fast twitch muscle. Can we move faster?”

By encouraging more low stakes experiments with AI, companies can gain valuable insights and experience that employees can leverage quickly when it counts. “The only way to move faster is to take a few bets early on, without real long term strategic ROI,” says Moisant.

Workday Vice President of AI Kathy Pham emphasizes that with new tools like AI, getting a full picture of an employee’s value and performance may take a bit longer than some people are used to. “Part of the measurement is better understanding what the return is and over what period of time,” she said.

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.



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