After Sora 2 was used to relentlessly churn out depictions of Japanese anime and video game characters, the creators of those characters are striking back.On October 28, a group representing Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, and other major Japanese publishers submitted a written request to OpenAI demanding that it stop using their copyrighted content to train the video generating AI tool.The move, as first reported by Automaton, is the latest example of Japan signaling protectiveness of its art and media against an AI industry that catapulted itself to extraordinary heights by devouring copyrighted works en masse without permission or compensation. In a statement, the group, called the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), said that it had determined Sora 2 is able to generate outputs that “closely resembles Japanese content or images” because this content was used as training data.Therefore, in cases “where specific copyrighted works are reproduced or similarly generated as outputs,” CODA said, it “considers that the act of replication during the machine learning process may constitute copyright infringement.”The launch of Sora 2 proved to be yet another generative AI tool with an irreverent attitude toward copyright law, only one that was designed to instantly feed into an endless TikTok-style scroll of short-form vertical videos. Here, there was no pretending that OpenAI’s goal was to do anything other than serve up slop.Recognizable characters like SpongeBob were often parodied with the AI, and perhaps none more than Japanese characters across various franchises. Many Sora videos featured Pokemon, including one showing a deepfaked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman grilling a dead Pikachu, and another showing Altman gazing at a flock of Pokemon frolicking across a field, before grimacing into the camera and saying, “I hope Nintendo doesn’t sue us.”The real Sam Altman, in fact, has acknowledged his fans’ affinity for ripping off Japanese art, though without mentioning the outrage this caused.“In particular, we’d like to acknowledge the remarkable creative output of Japan,” he wrote in a blog post following the launch of Sora 2.”We are struck by how deep the connection between users and Japanese content is!”This “deep” connection goes back a while. When OpenAI released new image generation capabilities for ChatGPT in March, it spawned a mega-viral trend of using the tool to generate images imitating the style of the legendary Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, including “Ghiblified” selfies of yourself. Altman consecrated the trend by creating his own Ghibli-style portrait, which is still his profile picture on social media to this day.It’s no surprise, then, that Japan has been feeling a little on edge about OpenAI’s attitude towards copyright. Mid-October, the Japanese government made a formal request asking it to stop ripping off the nation’s beloved characters. Minoru Kiuchi, the minister of state for IP and AI strategy, called manga and anime “irreplaceable treasures.”Initially, OpenAI signaled that copyright holders would have to manually opt out of having their works cribbed by Sora, but then reversed course after the launch and said that they would be opted out by default. Crucially, this was only after it piggybacked the virality of using copyrighted characters to shoot the app to the top of Apple’s App store. CODA also doesn’t seem to consider this a satisfactory measure. In the statement, the group notes that “under Japan’s copyright system, prior permission is generally required for the use of copyrighted works, and there is no system allowing one to avoid liability for infringement through subsequent objections.”The CODA members have requested the following: that their content isn’t used for AI training without permission, and that OpenAI “responds sincerely to claims and inquiries from CODA member companies regarding copyright infringement related to Sora 2’s outputs.”More on OpenAI: Racist Influencers Using OpenAI’s Sora to Make it Look Like Poor People Are Selling Food Stamps for CashThe post Studio Ghibli Demands That OpenAI Stop Ripping Off Its Work appeared first on Futurism.