Alcon Entertainment sues Tesla, Musk, Warner Bros. over Blade Runner imagery in Cybercab AI image
Alcon Entertainment, producer of Blade Runner 2049, sued Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros. Discovery for allegedly using an AI image generator to create unauthorized promotional imagery based on the film for Tesla's Cybercab event. The lawsuit alleges Tesla fed film images into an AI system to generate the promotional material after Alcon refused licensing permission.
What happened
Alcon Entertainment sued Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros. Discovery on October 21, 2024, in California federal court over an AI-generated image used at a Tesla Cybercab promotional event earlier that month. According to the complaint, Tesla allegedly fed images from the film Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to create an unlicensed promotional image after Alcon refused to grant licensing rights.
The image shown at the presentation depicted a male figure in a trench coat surveying ruins of a city in misty orange light, designed to visually resemble an iconic scene from Blade Runner 2049 featuring Ryan Gosling's character exploring ruined Las Vegas, with the words 'Not This' superimposed in the upper left corner. Musk directly referenced the Denis Villeneuve film in his remarks at the event.
Reported impact
Alcon stated it did not want Blade Runner 2049 to be affiliated with Musk, citing concerns about his 'extreme political and social views.' The company said it was considering potential partners for an upcoming TV series based on the film and that any prudent brand considering a Tesla partnership would need to account for Musk's 'massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech.'
Index analysis
The lawsuit alleges Tesla used artificial intelligence to generate new imagery derived from copyrighted material without authorization, combining unauthorized training data sourcing with false endorsement implications for the original work.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.