Nintendo is renowned for its aggressive defense of intellectual property, particularly its iconic Mario and Pokémon franchises. The recent debut of OpenAI`s Sora 2, an AI tool for video and audio creation, features a significant number of Nintendo-owned characters. This extensive use appears to challenge Nintendo`s protective stance, potentially prompting legal action. Sora 2 allows users to generate videos from text descriptions, similar to how AI image generators function.
The New York Times reported that OpenAI has contacted major copyright holders and Hollywood figures regarding the retroactive removal of their content from Sora 2. It remains uncertain if Nintendo received a similar outreach, but the abundance of Sora 2 material featuring Pokémon and Mario strongly implies that Nintendo`s intellectual property was extensively used to train the AI model.
Beyond Nintendo`s creations, other prominent intellectual properties such as Tony Hawk`s Pro Skater and Portal have also seemingly been incorporated into Sora 2`s training data.
The question now is how Nintendo will react. Given their history of pursuing legal action against AI-generated Mario images just last year, it`s improbable that the highly litigious company will overlook Sora 2`s use of its IP without intervention.
Earlier this year, reports indicated potential discussions between Disney and OpenAI. However, Disney ultimately chose to sue Midjourney, another AI service, for the alleged misuse of its films and images. Separately, author George R.R. Martin and several other writers have filed lawsuits against OpenAI.
Although some Japanese game developers are increasingly adopting AI, companies like OpenAI and Midjourney have not established partnerships with the intellectual property owners whose content they utilize. Nintendo, on the other hand, has adopted a careful stance toward AI. Shigeru Miyamoto, a key figure at Nintendo, has indicated that the company will not hastily integrate AI like some other developers. Doug Bowser, the former president of Nintendo of America, acknowledged AI`s potential role in game development but emphasized the critical need to preserve a “human touch” in the creative process.