Japan Tells OpenAI to Stop Using Mario, Pikachu, and Anime Characters in Sora 2 Videos: Report

OpenAI's Sora 2 video generation model, which was released on September 30, has reportedly received flak from the Japanese government over copyright infringement. The country has formally requested the company to stop copyright infringement on its intellectual property (IP). The artificial intelligence (AI) model powers the company's new Sora app for iOS, where users can generate AI videos for free and share them with their friends and other users. Many users have noted the close resemblance when attempting to generate videos with Japan's copyrighted characters, such as Super Mario, Pikachu, Goku, and others.

Japan Is Not Happy With Sora's AI-Generated Videos

According to Japanese outlet IT Media News, Minoru Kiuchi, Japan's Minister of State for IP and AI Strategy, said in a Cabinet Office press conference that the government has sent a formal request to OpenAI to “not to engage in any actions that could constitute copyright infringement.” It was reportedly an online request sent by the country's Cabinet Office's Intellectual Property Strategy Promotion Secretariat.

“Anime and manga are irreplaceable treasures that we can be proud of around the world,” Minister Kiuchi was quoted as saying.

Separately, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Deputy Secretary-General and House of Representatives member Akihisa Shiozaki urged the Japanese government to exercise Article 16 of the AI ​​Promotion Act in a post, which grants it “the legal authority to request investigations and reports from relevant businesses and to provide necessary guidance and advice,” in case of an AI-led copyright infringement issue.

Notably, Sora 2 generations have drawn concerns over copyright infringement from the day it was launched. Earlier this month, OpenAI changed its existing policy for the Sora app, which stated that if a rightsholder of a character did not want Sora to generate the character, they would have to opt out of the process. Sora now works on an opt-in basis and gives rightsholders granular control over how these characters are depicted.

In the post detailing the change, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “We'd like to acknowledge the remarkable creative output of Japan--we are struck by how deep the connection between users and Japanese content is!”