Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan Sue YouTube For Rs 4 Crore Over Deepfake Videos

Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan have filed a lawsuit against YouTube and Google over alleged AI-generated deepfake videos. According to Reuters, the couple is seeking Rs 4 crore in damages and a permanent injunction to prevent further misuse of their images and videos.

The actors claim that YouTube allows users to share videos that can be used to train competing AI models, which could amplify misleading content online. Nearly identical legal petitions filed by Abhishek and Aishwarya on September 6, which are not publicly available, highlight this concern.

The documents state:

"The use of any infringing material in such content to train AI models is likely to increase exponentially, i.e., it is first uploaded to YouTube, viewed by the public, and then used for training."

The couple further argues that if AI platforms are trained on biased or infringing content that portrays them negatively, the AI models could propagate false information about them, violating their intellectual property rights.

The Delhi High Court has asked Google's legal team to submit a written response before the next hearing scheduled for January 15.

On the professional front, Aishwarya Rai's last film was Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023), and she has not yet announced her next project. Abhishek Bachchan was last seen in Madhumitha's Kaalidhar Laapata, co-starring Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Daivik Bhagela, and is set to appear next in Siddharth Anand's King alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and Suhana Khan.