Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has never attempted to hide the science-fiction influences which inspire his companies.
But now, Musk’s enthusiasm for film has landed him in hot water as the maker of Blade Runner 2049 sues the billionaire tech boss over Tesla’s Robotaxi images.
During the ‘We, Robot’ event on October 10, Musk showed a stylised image bearing a striking resemblance to one of Ryan Gosling’s key scenes from the movie.
However, Alcon Entertainment, the film’s production company, says it had explicitly refused 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 imagery based on scenes from Blade Runner 2049.
Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros Studios (who hosted the event) are now all facing a lawsuit for using the movie’s iconic imagery 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 makers of Blade Runner 2049 for using images allegedly made using AI to resemble 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 reveal for the Robotaxi, 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 wearing a duster jacket, standing in front of a orange-tinted city.
Musk then said: ‘You see a lot of sci-fi movies where the future is dark, dismal, 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 bleak apocalypse.’
A video of the event during which the alleged fake images were shown is still live on YouTube and has over two million views at the time of writing.
Alcom Entertainment claims that Tesla and Warner Bros, which had distributed Blade Runner 2049 when it released, contacted Alcom Entertainment earlier that day to ask permission to use stills from the film.
However, Alcom Entertainment’s 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, says that they had specifically rejected a request to use images from the film (pictured) earlier that day. They accuse Telsa of using AI-generated images for ‘false endorsement’
While the image is not identical to any scene in the film, the lawsuit alleges that it was made using AI to appear like it could have come from Blade Runner 2049.
In this regard, it may be notable that Musk is the CEO and owner of xAI which launched an AI image generator earlier this year.
The lawsuit says: ‘It all exuded an odor of thinly contrived excuse to link Tesla’s cybercab to strong Hollywood brands at a time when Tesla and Musk are on the outs with Hollywood.’
Alcom Entertainment seems especially annoyed by the use of the image due to the fact that it has several actual brand deals with car companies with ‘dollar price tags in the eight figures’.
The production company says that it is currently in talks with other automotive brands over deals based on the upcoming Blade Runner 2049 television series, complaining that Musk’s actions are ‘likely to cause confusion’.
The lawsuit says: ‘This was clearly all in bad faith and intentionally malicious gambit by Defendants to make the otherwise stilted and stiff content of the joint WBDI-Tesla event more attractive to the global audience’.
Additionally, the company complains that it is particularly damaging for its brand to be associated with Elon Musk.
The lawsuit writes: ‘Beyond these more ordinary commercial issues, there is the problematic Musk himself.
The production company specifically complained that Elon Musk’s (pictured) ‘highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior’ made the association with their brand especially damaging for the company’s reputation
‘Any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.’
Musk, Tesla, and Warner Bros are yet to issue any statement in response to the suit.
However, this is not the first time Musk has come under fire for allegedly appropriating designs from science fiction films.
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.
Following the event in October, ‘I, Robot’ director Alex Proyas accused Musk of poaching his ideas.
On X, formerly Twitter, the Australian-Egyptian filmmaker wrote: ‘Hey Elon, Can I have my designs back please?’
Mr Proyas then posted stills of futuristic tech from ‘I, Robot’ next to 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 self-driving abilities developed by Audi for use as a product placement.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk was accused by the director of the 2004 film ‘I, Robot’ of stealing designs. The director pointed out 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 which is used to transport robots in the film.
However, many commenters on X lept to Musk’s defence claiming that Proyas should be grateful that Tesla had brought his ideas to life.
One commenter wrote: ‘Be honored.
‘What you did with CGI and a green screen, @elonmusk did in reality.’
Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. did not respond to MailOnline’s request for comment.
