LeBron James sends cease and desist letter to stop this company from making AI-generated brain rot
Tackling AI-generated brainrot content is harder than you might think. The straw that broke the camel’s back was an AI-generated picture of the famous American basketball player depicted as pregnant, making this case significant as celebrities rarely seek legal action over similar matters.
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Tackling AI-generated brainrot content is harder than you might think. The straw that broke the camel’s back was an AI-generated picture of the famous American basketball player depicted as pregnant, making this case significant as celebrities rarely seek legal action over similar matters.
LeBron James has lawyered up and sent cease and desist letters to the creators of an AI tool and Discord community that would allow users to generate AI videos depicting the NBA player.
What makes this situation stand out is that it is one of the first times it has been publicly known that a notable celebrity has taken legal action against an AI company that allows users to generate images and videos depicting these celebrities without their consent, reports 404media.
It’s also the first time that a well-known person has taken legal action against the publication of content that they didn’t consent to, which isn’t just a matter of sexual AI-generated content that circulates around social media.
LeBron James' appearances have been used to create what is known as “brainrot,” which could be defined as repetitive, nonsensical content that is yet highly engaging and addictive. Such content often includes memes, videos, and viral TikToks.
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The tool used to create these videos featuring LeBron James was Interlink AI, which is powered by another AI generation platform, Flickup.
People could even learn how to make these videos on the Interlink AI Discord channel by following detailed guides that specify how to make videos of the player.
Content of James and another basketball player, Steph Curry, has generated millions of views on Instagram. The graphics showed how AI-generated James is standing near an AI-generated Diddy while he’s sexually assaulting Steph Curry. In another video, James is depicted as a homeless person or pregnant.
Last month, the Interlink AI Discord community shared that it would remove models that look like real people from the Interlink AI platform.
It was revealed that after running into “legal issues involving a highly valued basketball player,” the Interlink decided to remove all realistic likenesses from the site,” reports 404media.
The site also received a confirmation from the founder of FlickUp, Jason Stacks, that the player who sent the cease and desist letter was LeBron James. Within 30 minutes after receiving the letter, the company removed all realistic people from Interlink AI's software.
Stacks also shared a reel in which he talks about the letter and the fact that he created something that was supposed to help other creators make some money, but grew into something that “people started noticing.”
It’s been reported that at least three Instagram accounts that posted these AI-generated videos of LeBron James and had millions of views have been deleted.
Once it became clear how successful this type of content is, James's face wasn’t the only one used to create it: Curry, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nikola Jokić were other names. Other celebrities were involved, too, including Elon Musk, Mr. Beast, Drake, and Kanye West.
Various celebrities have been the target of AI-generated content. However, there are not many well-known cases in which these people try to protect themselves from having their faces exploited in this way.