In a landmark legal action, Bollywood icons Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan have filed a lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company, Google. The couple is seeking damages of Rs 4 crore (approximately $450,000), alleging that their intellectual property and personality rights have been violated by AI-generated deepfake videos circulating on the platform.
This legal petition follows a recent Delhi High Court order aimed at protecting their rights.
Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan sue YouTube
Filed on September 6, the lawsuit requests the immediate removal and a permanent ban on all videos that infringe upon the couple’s rights.
Beyond seeking the removal of existing content, the Bachchans have asked the court to mandate that YouTube implement safeguards to prevent their videos from being used to train competing AI models. This demand stems from what they describe as a growing concern over the misuse of AI in content creation.
Here’s what the lawsuit says:
According to legal documents reviewed by Reuters, the lawsuit specifically targets “egregious” and “sexually explicit” AI-generated material. The couple argues that YouTube’s current policies are insufficient and allow for further misuse as AI technology advances. They contend that the platform should have protocols in place to ensure that their names, voices, or images cannot be exploited by artificial intelligence.
The petition highlights a specific YouTube channel, AI Bollywood Ishq, which allegedly features more than 259 manipulated clips and has amassed over 16.5 million views. The legal filing cites examples, including a widely viewed video purportedly showing Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Salman Khan in a pool and another depicting Abhishek Bachchan in fabricated scenarios.
The actors’ petition also raised the broader issue of such content being used to train AI models, which could escalate the proliferation of infringing videos. In their filing, the actors stated, “Such content being used to train AI models has the potential to multiply the instances of use of any infringing content i.e. first being uploaded on YouTube being viewed by the public, and then also being used to train.”
What are the challenges:
The lawsuit challenges YouTube’s policy that permits creators to consent to their uploaded content being used for AI training. The Bachchans argue that this policy is dangerous, as it could lead to the multiplication of fake videos. “Allowing creators to consent to their videos being used to train AI models is dangerous, because content that misrepresents them could eventually be multiplied by AI itself,” they maintained.
While India currently lacks specific legislation for “personality rights,” this case is one of the most significant and high-profile examples of a legal battle at the intersection of celebrity, AI-generated content, and privacy in the country. The lawsuit underscores the growing need for regulatory clarity in the digital media landscape.
