Runway AI – videos stolen from Youtube

As someone who posts videos to Youtube, I was shocked when I first heard the rumour that companies were ripping off videos to ‘train’ generative AI such as Runway. Now there’s proof. The following is taken from a Futurism article entitled ‘Leak Shows That Google-Funded AI Video Generator Runway Was Trained on Stolen YouTube Content, Pirated Films‘ :

‘A popular and powerful text-to-video AI generator developed by Runway was trained on copious amounts of pirated content and ripped off YouTube videos, according to a gigantic internal spreadsheet obtained by 404 Media…The spreadsheet is chock full of popular content drawn from major YouTube channels, including those belonging to Disney, Netflix, and Sony, in addition to links to websites that are known to host pirated content.’

Given how much money has been invested in generative AI, I know it’s naive to hope this particular genie will be put back in its box, but boy would I like to see the CEO’s responsible for this global heist brought to justice. They have deliberately flouted every copyright law in existence because ‘the end justifies the means’.

But what is the end that makes outright theft on an unbelievable scale ‘okay’?

If the AI in question were being used in medical research to save lives, or in some program designed to transition us away from global warming, I might feel more conflicted, more uncertain. But the generative AI thrust upon an unsuspecting world are all about stealing art, not saving lives. And the men and women who are the most vocal about how ‘good’ AI is, are also the ones making the most money out of this global theft.

If I had a magic wand, I’d keep all the AI designed to further research and make the world a better place. And then I’d dump all the rest into a deep, deep hole, along with those who believe the end justifies the means.

It never does.

Meeks