In a recent legal battle, the producers of the iconic sci-fi film Blade Runner 2049 have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and Tesla. The lawsuit alleges that Musk used AI-generated images resembling scenes from the movie to promote Tesla’s new robotaxi without permission.
Alcon Entertainment, the production company behind the film also claims they explicitly denied a request to use the imagery, yet it was still featured during Tesla’s launch event.
Tesla and Warner Bros had at the time of filing this report, yet to reply to the requests for comment from BBC News.
The “financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial,” the lawsuit claimed, adding, “Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicised, capricious and arbitrary behaviour, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon also accused the event organisers of making “false endorsement” by suggesting a connection between the production company and Tesla.
Warner Bros, which hosted the robotaxi launch event at one of its movie studios, had been the distributor of Blade Runner 2049 when it was released in 2017.
The much -anticipated sequel to the 1982 cyberpunk classic Blade Runner, starred Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas and Jared Leto, and went on to win two Academy Awards.
