Mitch Glazier, chairman and CEO of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has released a statement supporting a lawsuit against the AI company Midjourney.

Midjourney was launched publicly in February 2022, and utilises AI technology to generate images from text prompts. It is run by the Midjourney independent research lab, which – according to its website – explores “new mediums of thought” and expands “the imaginative powers of the human species”.

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The lawsuit was filed on 11 June by Disney and Universal, and alleges that Midjourney has stolen “countless” copyrighted works to train its AI image generator (as reported by Billboard). It also claims that Midjourney allows users to create images that “blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters”.

Glazier calls the company a “bad actor”, and has described the lawsuit as a “critical stand” for responsible innovation. His official statement, which has been shared with MusicTech, reads, “There is a clear path forward through partnerships that both further AI innovation and foster human artistry. Unfortunately, some bad actors – like Midjourney – see only a zero-sum, winner-take-all game.

“These short-sighted AI companies are stealing human-created works to generate machine-created, virtually identical products for their own commercial gain. That is not only a violation of black letter Copyright law but also manifestly unfair. This action by Disney and Universal represents a critical stand for human creativity and responsible innovation.”

At the time of writing, Midjourney is yet to publicly comment on the lawsuit.

In other AI news, producer Timbaland has recently (and controversially) launched his own AI entertainment company called Stage Zero. Upon unveiling its first artist, named TaTa, Timbaland said, “I’m not just producing tracks anymore. I’m producing systems, stories, and stars from scratch.”

MusicTech has reached out to Midjourney for comment.

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