Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal Pictures have sued a Chinese artificial intelligence image and video generator for copyright infringement, opening another front in a high-stakes battle involving the use of movies and TV shows owned by major studios to teach AI systems.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in California federal court, accuses MiniMax of building its business by plundering the studios’ intellectual property. Its service, Hailuo AI, allows users to generate content of iconic copyrighted characters.

The studios characterize MiniMax’s alleged infringement as an existential threat. Given the rapid advancement of AI technology, it’s “only a matter of time until Hailuo AI can generate unauthorized, infringing videos” that are “substantially longer, and even eventually the same duration as a movie or television program,” the lawsuit says.

For years, AI companies have been training their technology on data scraped across the internet without compensating creators. It’s led to lawsuits from authors, record labels, news organizations, artists and studios, which contend that some AI tools erode demand for their content.

Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery joined Disney and Universal in suing Midjourney for allegedly training its AI system on its movies and TV shows. By their thinking, the AI company is a free-rider plagiarizing their content.

In a statement, Motion Picture Association CEO Charles Rivkin said AI companies will be “held accountable for infringing on the rights of American creators wherever they are located.” He added, “We remain concerned that copyright infringement, left unchecked, threatens the entire American motion picture industry.”

MiniMax markets its Hailuo AI as a “Hollywood studio in your pocket” and uses studios’ characters in promotional materials, the lawsuit says.

When prompted with Darth Vader, the service returns an image of the character with a Minimax watermark, according to the complaint. It can also generate videos of characters seen across Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal movies and TV shows, including Minions, Guardians of the Galaxy and Superman, the lawsuit claims. 

The only way MiniMax’s technology would be able do so, the studios allege, is if the company trained its AI system on their intellectual property.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including disgorgement of profits, and a court order barring MiniMax from continuing to exploit studios’ works.

It has never been easier to make a website or graphic with AI tools, but Jorn van Dijk, the cofounder of AI website builder Framer, says designers still need to put in some grunt work to stand out in the field.

Van Dijk told Business Insider that designers must nurture their sense of taste as they develop their careers.

“Taste and quality go hand in hand. With AI, it’s super easy to make something sloppy very fast. That’s why it’s called AI slop,” he said.

“A way to stand out is to focus on quality and making something unique to yourself, to the individual, and to the brand,” he added.

This is critical for businesses, which rely on their designers to develop a brand that “people like to engage with and get excited about,” van Dijk said.

“That is increasingly hard and not easy to do,” he said.

To refine one’s taste, van Dijk said designers should go back to the basics and “hone your hard skills.” That involves getting practice with tools to create good design and producing more work.

“Do a lot of exploration, make a lot of mock-ups, make a lot of icons, draw a lot of logos,” van Dijk said.

“What worked 10 years ago is probably still true today. It’s just that the tools have changed, and we can leverage AI to do better work,” he added.

Van Dijk started Framer in 2014 with his cofounder, Koen Bok. The company has over 130 employees and is based in Amsterdam, per PitchBook. In August, Framer raised $100 million at a $2 billion valuation in its Series D funding round.

Van Dijk and Bok cofounded Sofa in 2006, a software company that made apps for Apple’s MacBooks. Meta acquired Sofa in 2011, and the pair worked as product designers at the social media giant between 2011 and 2013.

Van Dijk told Business Insider that AI can benefit many creative fields, such as graphic design and film, but it hasn’t leveled the playing field between professional artists and the average person.

“It’s never been easier to create good video, but I haven’t really seen the amount of amazing videos or ads skyrocket because of that,” he said.