Disney and Universal have together filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, the company behind one of the most popular AI image generators, over rip offs of characters and art styles from the likes of The Simpsons and Star Wars.

Disney and Universal are the first major Hollywood studios to file copyright infringement lawsuits against AI companies, marking a pivotal moment in the ongoing fight by artists, newspapers and content makers to stop AI firms from using their work as training data.

The battle over the future of AI-generated content escalated on Wednesday as two Hollywood titans sued a fast-growing AI start-up for copyright infringement.