Nintendo Is Reportedly Targeting AI-Generated Mario Pictures
Tracer used AI to serve takedowns “on behalf of Nintendo”
Image: NintendoNintendo has been cracking down on all sorts of things recently, and now according to a new story from The Verge, it’s reportedly targeting AI-generated Mario pictures.
A company called Tracer is apparently working on “behalf of Nintendo” and has filed takedown notices to remove “dozens” of posts on social media platform ‘X’. This supposedly includes images generated by xAI’s Grok AI tool. It’s claimed Tracer is using its own “AI-powered copyright tool” to assist the process:
“The company [Tracer] apparently used AI to identify the images and serve takedown notices on behalf of Nintendo, hitting AI-generated images as well as some fan art.”
As further explained by the source, Tracer offers “AI-powered services to companies, purporting to identify trademark and copyright violations online”.
The AI-generated images depicted all sorts of things, including one Grok image which showed Mario smoking and drinking on the beach. Some fan art has seemingly been caught in the crossfire as well.
The Verge’s senior editor Tom Warren was originally made aware of these takedowns when he received a notice on ‘X’ about certain content being removed from his account following a DMCA complaint.
Tom Warren: “Nintendoās lawyers filed a DMCA takedown request against the Mario image I generated using Xās Grok AI”
Nintendo or Tracer haven’t provided a comment about these takedowns. This latest story follows Nintendo and The PokĆ©mon Company last week filing a lawsuit against the Palworld creator Pocketpair.
If we hear any developments, we’ll let you know.
[source theverge.com]
Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He’s been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He’s also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.
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