YouTuber files lawsuit against Nvidia over AI scraping leak

A lawsuit has been initiated against Nvidia for allegedly using YouTube videos to train its Cosmos AI project without proper authorization.

In the beginning of August 2024, it was reported by 404Media that Nvidia had utilized YouTube videos without the creator’s consent to train its Cosmos AI project.

According to reports, the publication had access to emails that stated the company was reviewing videos equivalent to 80 years’ worth of content every day. This included videos from popular tech YouTuber MKBHD, travel channel Expedia, and many others.

On August 14, 2024, David Millette, one of the impacted YouTubers, initiated a class action lawsuit against Nvidia for the unpermitted utilization of his videos. He is also requesting compensation and additional damages surpassing $5,000,000.

A render of the RTX 4070 Founders Edition — Nvidia

Nvidia is best well known for its PC graphics cards.

According to the complaint, the described unfair business practices are considered violations of the UCL due to their nature as unfair, immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous, or harmful to consumers. Additionally, the defendant is accused of using the plaintiff’s videos without permission for their own financial gain by training their Cosmos AI program.

The defendant is unjustly benefiting from, and receiving recognition for, creating commercial products using unattributed copies of the stolen videos and ideas.

After the lawsuit against Nvidia was filed, 404Media contacted the company and obtained a statement from their spokesperson.

“They assured that they are fully compliant with the letter and spirit of the law and respect the rights of all content creators.”

“Everyone has the right to acquire knowledge and concepts from publicly accessible resources. Generating innovative and revolutionary creations is not only ethical and fair, but it is also in accordance with the principles of our legal system.”

Apple is not the sole company that has faced allegations of utilizing YouTube videos to train its AI. In July, there were accusations that Apple had “taken”YouTube videos from MKBHD, MrBeast, and others in order to enhance its Apple Intelligence models.