Disney To Google: Stop Training Your AI On Moana, Frozen, Other Copyrighted Works

Disney to Google: Stop Training Your AI on Moana, Frozen, Other Copyrighted Works

Last updated: 2025/12/14 at 12:15 AM

News Room Published 14 December 2025

The Walt Disney Company has sent a cease and desist letter to Google, accusing it of training its AI models on copyrighted material and profiting from the outputs they generate.

“Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights,” reads the letter viewed by Variety.

Every image generated on Gemini comes with a watermarked logo. So, when the chatbot generates images of Disney’s characters, it leaves the impression “that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney,” the letter adds.

Some of the characters Disney found on Google’s AI include those from Star Wars, The Simpsons, Avengers, Spider-Man, Frozen, The Lion King, Moana, Deadpool, Toy Story, Brave, Ratatouille, and Inside Out.

The letter says that Disney had been raising its concerns with Google for months, but the latter “has refused to implement any technological measures to mitigate or prevent copyright infringement.” If anything, the “infringement has only increased during that time,” it adds.

In a statement to Variety, Google said it has “a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them,” adding that the company uses public data from the open web to build its AI.

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Disney sent a similar letter to Character.AI in September, and it sued Midjourney in June. Its latest warning to Google comes on the heels of its announcement of a new three-year licensing deal with OpenAI. As part of the deal, ChatGPT and Sora users will be able to generate images and videos using 200+ Disney characters.

Hollywood actors’ union SAG-AFTRA says it supports Disney’s deal with OpenAI and the letter it sent to Google. “We join in the objections raised in Disney’s formal demand letter to Google, putting the company on notice that the mass infringement of copyrighted works must stop. We equally object to the abuse of performers’ images, likenesses, and performances through its systems,” it said in a statement.