China copyright AI video streaming litigation

The iQIYI v. Minimax AI case in China is a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the major Chinese video-streaming platform iQIYI against AI startup MiniMax. The case covers 2 critical issues in the legal landscape for AI: 

• Unauthorized Training Data: iQIYI alleges that MiniMax used its copyrighted movies, TV shows, and other content without authorization to train MiniMax's large AI models.

• Infringing Output: The lawsuit also claims that the content generated by MiniMax's AI models infringes upon iQIYI's existing copyrights. 

The case was filed in the Xuhui District People's Court in Shanghai and is reported as a landmark case because it is one of the first instances where a major content platform is directly suing an AI developer over the use of content for model training activities.

The case has not proceeded yet according to the official website records of the Chinese courts. There are several possible explanations for this:

• iQIYI may have voluntarily withdrawn the lawsuit (e.g., the parties reached a private settlement, or the court successfully mediated the dispute).

  
  

• The case may have been strategically held by the court due to its data mining-related nature. For example, we know that the Beijing Internet Court is also handling a case where an illustrator sues the Redbook platform for AI data mining infringement. Since judicial branch is still working to reach a consensus on this sensitive and critical issue, they have been trying to persuade the plaintiff to settle with the platform. The plaintiff refused to settle, but the court has yet to issue a ruling—likely because the court itself, or even higher-level courts, are still deliberating on how to decide the case.