An AI video generator tool developed by Runway was trained on thousands of YouTube videos from Marques Brownlee and other content creators, states a newly published report.
Runaway’s AI video generator is popular among users, but a 404 Media report claims that it was trained on YouTube videos without their creator’s consent.
A spreadsheet of training data sourced by the outlet includes videos from popular influencers and content creators, including Marques Brownlee, Casey Neistat, Sam Kolder, Benjamin Hardman, and numerous others.
Well well well. Runway AI video generator was trained on YouTube videos without permission, including 1600+ MKBHD videos 🫠https://t.co/U4s5KIq1XZ
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) July 25, 2024
The AI tool is also claimed to have taken content from the YouTube channels of thousands of media and entertainment companies, including The New Yorker, VICE News, Pixar, Disney, Netflix, Sony, and others.
MKBHD confirmed that all of his 1,709 videos were used for AI training. However, 404 Media couldn’t verify that every video listed in the spreadsheet was used to train Runway AI. It’s possible that some content was filtered out later or that not all the links on the spreadsheet were scraped.
AI training under fire
The news comes after a Wired report accused Apple, Nvidia, and others of using videos from YouTubers (including MKBHD) to train their AI models.
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The response on social media has been less than welcoming to the oncoming flood of AI scrapers:
“This is a problem. We are in the Wild West with training and sourcing these training data of these models,” commented a user on MKBHD’s post on X.
“Yikes, this is going to be a slippery slope without proper laws and rules,” said another. “Seems like a common theme,” noted one user.
YouTube told 404 Media that this violates its privacy policy. However, it’s unclear if any action will be taken against the creator of the AI model.