Midjourney Wants Hollywood to Show Its AI Cards as Legal Fight With Major Studios Heats Up

The battle between Hollywood and generative AI keeps getting more interesting, and now Midjourney is asking a question that a lot of people have probably wondered themselves.

If major studios are taking AI companies to court over how the technology is being used, how much are those same studios using AI behind the scenes?

That's exactly what Midjourney is trying to find out as its legal fight with Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. continues. The AI image generation company is pushing for more transparency, arguing that if Hollywood is making use of similar technology internally, that information could play a major role in the case.

Earlier this week, Midjourney filed a motion asking the court to require Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to disclose much more about their own generative AI efforts.

According to the filing, the company wants access to details including AI training datasets, business plans, and even board meeting presentations discussing generative AI initiatives.

The request comes after a judge ruled in June to limit Midjourney's ability to investigate how the studios are using AI internally. Now, the company is trying once again to gain access to that information, arguing that it could strengthen its legal defense.

Midjourney attorney Bobby Ghajar explained why the company believes those records matter, saying: “If Plaintiffs are doing the very thing they seek to punish, that evidence goes to the heart of Midjourney’s fair use and unclean hands defenses.”

Before this latest motion, Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. agreed to provide information about consumer-facing AI projects, but they stopped short of handing over anything involving internal AI tools.

Ghajar also argued that if those internal systems exist, they could reveal something much bigger about how the entertainment industry is approaching AI. He said it “equally demonstrates [this] an industry custom, even among the studios themselves, to download and train AI on unlicensed copyrighted content.”

The studios, however, say that's missing the point entirely. Representing Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros., attorney David Singer argued that the lawsuit isn't about whether studios are experimenting with AI. Instead, it's about protecting copyrighted material from unauthorized use.

Singer said “to stop copying their movies and TV shows and to stop…publicly performing and creating derivative works that include copies of Plaintiffs’ famous characters without authorization.” He went on to add that “any copyright holder would assert against any infringer, AI-powered or otherwise.”

The case has become one of the highest-profile legal battles surrounding generative AI, especially as entertainment companies continue trying to figure out how to embrace new technology without giving up control of their valuable intellectual property.

Of the three studios involved, Disney has been the most open about its AI ambitions. In late 2025, the company announced a massive $1 billion investment in OpenAI that was expected to bring "hundreds" of Disney characters to the Sora platform.

Those plans didn't last long. Earlier this year, the Sora initiative came to an end after SoraAI shut down. Even so, Disney made it clear it wasn't walking away from AI altogether, saying it would continue working with AI platforms and "embrace new technologies that respect IP and the rights of creators."

Now the question is whether the court will require Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. to reveal just how much AI development is happening inside their own walls.

It's an interesting twist because this lawsuit isn't just about whether Midjourney crossed a legal line. It's also becoming a conversation about whether the biggest entertainment companies are holding AI developers to a different standard than the one they apply to themselves.

If Midjourney succeeds in getting access to those internal documents, we could end up learning a lot more about how Hollywood is preparing for an AI-powered future than anyone expected when this lawsuit first began.

via Variety