Mickey Mouse's Public Domain Reemergence Sparks AI Art Debate
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Mickey Mouse's early Steamboat Willie iteration entered public domain in 2024, leading to an explosion of AI-generated art using the character.
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People created suggestive and explicit images like "Creamboat Willie" dripping in "ejaculate," partly as humor and partly to test AI copyright limits.
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Pierre-Carl Langlais created a special "Mickey-1928" AI model trained only on public domain Mickey works as a political statement about responsible AI training data.
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Some Steamboat Willie AI art is meant as a middle finger to Disney, which lobbied to extend copyright protections in the 1990s ("Mickey Mouse Protection Act").
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The controversy demonstrates questions around what material AI systems should legally access as regulators explore "ethical AI" rules.