YouTubers sue Snap for alleged copyright infringement in training its AI models

A group of YouTubers suing tech giants for scraping their videos without permission to train AI models has now added Snap to their list of defendants. The plaintiffs, internet content creators behind a trio of YouTube channels with roughly 6.2 million collective subscribers, allege that Snap has trained its AI systems on their video content for AI features like the app’s “Imagine Lens,” which allows users to edit images using prompts.

The plaintiffs earlier filed similar lawsuits against Nvidia, Meta, and ByteDance over similar matters.

In the newly filed proposed class action suit, filed on Friday in the Central District court in California, the YouTubers specifically call out Snap for its use of the large-scale, video-language data set known as HD-VILA-100M, and others similarly designed for only academic and research purposes. To use these datasets, the plaintiffs claim Snap routed around YouTube’s technological restrictions, terms of service, and licensing limitations for commercial purposes.

The suit is seeking statutory damages and a permanent injunction on the alleged copyright infringement going forward.

The case itself is being led by the creators behind the h3h3 YouTube channel, with 5.52 million subscribers, and the smaller golfing channels MrShortGame Golf and Golfoholics.

It’s now one of many pitting content creators against AI model providers, which have included those that focus on copyright disputes from publishers, authors, newspapers, user-generated content sites, artists, and more. It’s also not the first case to hail from a YouTuber. According to the non-profit organization Copyright Alliance, over 70 copyright infringement cases have been filed against AI companies.

In some cases, like one between Meta and a group of authors, the judge has ruled in favor of the tech giant. In others, like the case between Anthropic and a group of authors, the AI giant has paid out the plaintiffs for their claims. Many cases are still in active litigation.

Snap was asked for comment. TechCrunch will update if one is provided.