Tesla ‘Blade Runner’ Image Suit Blends New Tech, Old Principles

A lawsuit accusing Tesla Inc. of using an AI-generated “Blade Runner 2049" image at an event this month will hinge on the same legal principles as cases involving a Nike logo and a Dr. Seuss-Star Trek mashup.

Alcon Entertainment LLC’s suit claims Elon Musk’s company fed images from the 2017 film into an artificial intelligence image generator to create an output with a matching aesthetic, which Musk used in a presentation about the company’s development of robo-taxis. Tesla requested permission from the film company, was refused, then used the image of a man overlooking an apocalyptic cityscape, according to Alcon’s ...