Aloha, AI Moana: Google’s AI Will No Longer Accept Disney Character Prompts
Google’s AI tools, including Gemini and the Nano Banana image generator, will no longer create content based on prompts that reference (or, in some cases, are similar to) Disney characters. As first reported by Deadline and tested out by CNET, Google has apparently tweaked its AI tools to deny prompts that could violate Disney copyrights. The move is likely in response to a cease-and-desist letter from the entertainment company in December. In that letter, Disney alleged that Google was failing to implement technology to prevent copyright infringement. “Google continues to directly exploit Disney’s copyrights for commercial gain,” Disney alleged in the cease-and-desist letter. Representatives for Google and Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Referencing characters like Moana or Disney’s version of Tinker Bell causes tools such as Nano Banana to return an error or stall out before generating an image. In one case, CNET tried to create an image of a character similar in appearance to Mickey Mouse without naming the character: “A cartoon mouse with big yellow shoes wearing red shorts …
