In latest AI training drama, Runway accused of using publicly available YouTube videos

In the most recent drama surrounding the training of artificial intelligence models, video generation startup Runway AI Inc. is being accused of using publicly available YouTube videos to coach its AI video generation model.

The corporate, which launched its Gen-3 Alpha model for generating 10-second videos in June to generally positive reviews, is claimed by 404 Media to scraped “hundreds of videos from popular YouTube creators and types, in addition to pirated movies.” The claim is made based on an internal spreadsheet obtained by the outlet.

Among the many YouTube channels allegedly used to coach Rumway’s AI include those from The Recent Yorker, VICE News, Pixar, Disney, Netflix and Sony. Videos from YouTube creators, including Casey Neistat, Sam Kolder, Benjamin Hardman and Marques Brownlee were also apparently used.

Notably, the leaked spreadsheet is alleged to point out that the corporate was attempting to obtain videos that had a particular style of subject material, camera work and a various set of individuals in them. In some cases, the videos targeted included those showing rain, beaches and even doctors.

404 Media claims that using such material to help in training AI models is ripping off YouTube creators with a theme that by some means reading or viewing publicly available material is a few form of massive crime. And yet, it isn’t.

Although there are arguably gray areas around AI that laws are yet to meet up with, if someone reads 100 books or videos after which involves a conclusion based on them, that’s not copyright theft unless the knowledge learned — outside of facts — was copied verbatim. That said, some argue that the dimensions of the AIs’ ingestion of copyrighted material constitutes a violation — something that hasn’t yet been decided legally.

The closest 404 Media can get to is that a video of a person skiing generated by Runway is somewhat just like a video from a YouTube creator. One other video of a racing automobile was also similar. Each of the examples used prompts specifically asking Runway to repeat the unique video — not regular user behavior — and that the result was not an identical, which 404 Media admits, signifies that they’re likely not a breach of copyright.

The drama around Runway followed the same storm in a teacup on July 16 when Anthropic PBC, Nvidia Corp., Apple Inc. and Salesforce Inc. were accused of using subtitles from YouTube videos to assist train their AI models.

Legal motion has also been taken in relation to AI training, with Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI sued for his or her use of nonfiction authors’ work in AI training in November. The category-action lawsuit, led by a Recent York Times reporter, claimed that OpenAI allegedly scraped the content of a whole lot of hundreds of nonfiction books to coach their AI models.

The Times also accused OpenAI, Google LLC and Meta Holdings Inc. in April of skirting legal boundaries for AI training data.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Ideogram