By james art The Tesla car logo is pictured at the Paris Motor Show, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) #
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A film production company that helped make “Blade Runner 2049” is suing Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk for using an AI-generated image resembling a scene from a sci-fi movie to market the Tesla’s new robotics.
Alcon Entertainment said it denied all permissions, but Tesla said it used artificial intelligence to “do everything anyway” when the automaker unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi on Oct. 10 during a live event at Warner Studios Bros. in Burbank, California.
After taking the stage in one of the company’s “cyber taxis,” Musk gave a speech that included a brief reference to the film franchise. As he spoke, an image of a man in a long coat appeared on the screen, looking out over an orange colored ruined city. Alcon claims it resembles a key scene in which star Ryan Gosling arrives in a “quasi-sentient flying car” in an abandoned Las Vegas.
“I love Blade Runner, but I don’t know if we want that future,” Musk said. “I think we want the duster he’s wearing, but not the grim apocalypse.”
A copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Alcon this week in federal court in Southern California alleges that the defendants requested permission to use images from the film “just hours” before the event, but Alcon “denied all permissions and strongly objected.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Alcon is also suing Warner Bros, the film’s distributor, which hosted Musk’s robotics event. Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alcon, which is working on the “Blade Runner 2099” series for Amazon, said it was in talks with automakers to partner with the brand but avoided tying up with Tesla because of Musk’s “extreme political and social views” and his “massively enhanced, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior that sometimes veers into hate speech.