Tom Brady reportedly threatens lawsuit over AI-generated video, comedians claim
Tom Brady isn't happy a fake comedy special was created using his likeness with artificial intelligence without his permission.
Comedians Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen revealed on their podcast, "Dudesy," that Brady's lawyers sent them a cease-and-desist letter after seeing an hour-long video that used an AI-generated photo of the former NFL quarterback in the stand-up comedy show.
In the lawsuit, Brady's lawyers demanded Sasso and Kulgen "immediately remove the aforementioned use of Mr. Brady's name, image, voice, persona, and likeness, and any other unauthorized uses ..." The lawsuit also claims the duo "misappropriated Mr. Brady's name, voice, persona, and likeness to advertise and promote the Dudesy podcast and Patreon page." Other accusations include presenting Brady in a "false light" and possible defamation and copyright infringement.
Sasso and Kultgen broke down the rest of the lawsuit in a YouTube episode from earlier this week. They said they removed the video but noted that it was only an impersonation of Brady and the video clearly said it was a "simulated" version of what would happen if Brady did comedy.
"It's exactly like what you would see if you watch any stand-up comedy special or sketch comedy show where they're doing impersonations of people," Kultgen said on the YouTube video. "I don't think we're in any way presenting Mr. Brady at all. It's simply a parody of the idea of Tom Brady doing stand-up."
Brady retired from the NFL in February after 23 seasons in the league. He's set to become a lead broadcast analyst for Fox Sports in the future.
Artificial intelligence lawsuits rising
Lawsuits involving AI-generated video and images have begun to pop up more and more as artificial intelligence becomes more readily accessible and mainstream. So far, most of them involve the violation of copyright law when AI tools create content by using art scraped from the Internet without the permission of the artist.
But with the case of Brady, a lawsuit would have featured the illegal use of a celebrity's likeness with AI.
Celebrity likeness lawsuits weren't uncommon even before the advent of AI. Singer Bette Midler sued Ford Motor Co. in 1988 for the illegal use of her singing voice after the car company hired someone to sing like Midler for a commercial. NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sued General Motors in 1996 after the company compared one of its cars to his former name, Lew Alcindor. Actors George Wendt and John Ratzenberger, who played Norm" and Cliff on the television show, "Cheers," sued Host International after that company built two robots that looked like them at airports.
The Brady incident appears to be over after the video was taken down, but it opened potentially more trouble down the road.
