Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has never tried to hide the science fiction influences that inspire his companies.
But now, Musk’s enthusiasm for film has gotten him into trouble as the creator of Blade Runner 2049 sues the billionaire tech boss over footage of Tesla’s Robotaxi.
During the ‘We, Robot’ event on October 10, Musk showed off a stylized image that bears a striking resemblance to one of the key scenes from the Ryan Gosling film.
However, Alcon Entertainment, the film’s production company, says it explicitly rejected a request to use stills from the film during the launch of Tesla’s self-driving Robotaxi.
The company alleges that Tesla used an AI-powered image generator to create fake promotional images based on scenes from Blade Runner 2049.
Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros Studios (which organized the event) are now facing a lawsuit for using the film’s iconic images without permission.
The lawsuit accuses those involved of “false endorsement” and threatens that the “financial magnitude of the misappropriation here was substantial.”
Elon Musk is being sued by the creators of Blade Runner 2049 for using images allegedly created with AI to look like the film (pictured) to promote the launch of the Tesla Robotaxi.
The images mentioned in the lawsuit were shown during Musk’s keynote presentation at the ‘We, Robot’ event.
As part of the Robotaxi presentation, Musk showed a slide with the question: “What kind of world do we want to live in?”
The screen then changed to show what appears to be an AI-generated image of a lone figure in a warm jacket, standing in front of an orange-tinged city.
Musk then said, “You see a lot of science fiction movies where the future is dark, bleak, where it’s not a future you want to be in.”
“I love Blade Runner but I don’t know if we want that future, maybe we want that duster he’s wearing, but not the grim apocalypse.”
A video of the event during which the alleged fake images were shown is still available on YouTube and has over two million views at the time of writing.
Alcom Entertainment claims that Tesla and Warner Bros., who had distributed Blade Runner 2049 when it was released, contacted Alcom Entertainment that same day for permission to use stills from the film.
However, the Alcom Entertainment CEO ‘firmly rejected’ the request for any association between the Blade Runner 2049 brand and Elon Musk or any of his companies.
Alcom Entertainment, the makers of Blade Runner 2049, say they had specifically declined a request to use footage from the film (pictured) earlier in the day. Telsa accused of using AI-generated images for ‘false endorsement’
While the image is not identical to any scene from the film, the lawsuit alleges that it was made using AI to make it look like it could come from Blade Runner 2049.
In this regard, it is worth noting that Musk is the CEO and owner of xAI, which launched an AI imager earlier this year.
The lawsuit says: “The whole thing reeked of an ill-conceived excuse to link Tesla’s cybertaxi with strong Hollywood brands at a time when Tesla and Musk are at odds with Hollywood.”
Alcom Entertainment seems especially bothered by the use of the image due to the fact that it has several actual brand deals with car companies with “eight-figure dollar prices.”
The production company says it is currently in talks with other car brands about deals based on the upcoming Blade Runner 2049 TV series, complaining that Musk’s actions are “likely to cause confusion.”
The lawsuit says: “This was clearly all in bad faith and an intentionally malicious tactic by Defendants to make the otherwise stilted and rigid content of the joint WBDI-Tesla event more attractive to the global audience.”
Additionally, the company complains that it is especially damaging to its brand to associate with Elon Musk.
The lawsuit writes: ‘Beyond these more ordinary business issues, there is the troubled Musk.
The production company specifically complained that Elon Musk’s (pictured) “highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior” made association with his brand especially damaging to the company’s reputation.
“Any prudent brand considering partnering with Tesla must take into account Musk’s vastly amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes devolves into hate speech.”
Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros. have yet to issue any statements in response to the lawsuit.
However, this is not the first time Musk has come under fire for allegedly appropriating designs from sci-fi movies.
The ‘We, Robot’ event was named in a clear reference to the 1950 novel ‘I, Robot’ by Isaac Asimov, which was adapted into a film of the same name in 2004.
After the October event, ‘I, Robot’ director Alex Proyas accused Musk of stealing his ideas.
On X, formerly Twitter, the Australian-Egyptian filmmaker wrote: “Hi Elon, can you have my designs back please?”
Proyas then posted images of the futuristic ‘I, Robot’ technology alongside three extremely similar Tesla products: Optimus, Robovan and Robotaxi.
Many on social media pointed out that the Robotaxi looks similar to the ‘Audi RSQ’, a concept car with swinging ‘butterfly doors’ and autonomous driving capabilities developed by Audi for use as a placement product.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk was accused by the director of the 2004 film ‘I, Robot’ of stealing designs. The director highlighted the similarities between the Tesla Robotaxi (left) and the Audi RSQ concept car used in the film (left).
Likewise, Tesla’s Robovan appears to share a similar design to the USR Robot Transport automated cargo truck used to transport robots in the film.
However, many X commenters came to Musk’s defense, claiming that Proyas should be grateful that Tesla had made his ideas a reality.
One commenter wrote: ‘Be honored.
“What you did with CGI and a green screen, @elonmusk did for real.”
Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. did not respond to MailOnline’s request for comment.