The lawsuit alleges that Midjourney's AI image- and video-generation technologies "blatantly incorporate and copy Disney's and Universal's famous characters," like Yoda, Shrek and Marvel superheroes.

The suit, against Midjourney, is the first time major Hollywood companies have sued over A.I.-generated images.

Disney and Universal filed a joint copyright infringement suit against Midjourney, one of the most widely used generative AI image platforms. The complaint, filed in California, alleges that Midjourney knowingly trained its AI models on copyrighted film stills and character images – without permission.