Inappropriate Super Mario images banned from X

Lately, it is common to find dozens of images on the internet that are generated by artificial intelligence, and although on many occasions this may seem fun and interesting, it also ends up raising questions about copyright and the use of third-party intellectual property, as happened with Super Mario.

It turns out that recently, some images generated with the image of the Nintendo character in inappropriate situations began to appear on X, formerly Twitter. This dilemma ended up involving Nintendo and the removal of these images, which were generated by AI. Check out more details.

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Using your own AI to identify violations

Several posts on X that contained Super Mario images created by xAI’s GrokAI tool have been deleted and removed. This happened after warnings from a company called Tracer, which uses its own artificial intelligence to identify images that may contain copyright and trademark violations. This company acts on behalf of others, like Nintendo in this case.

However, images generated by AI were not the only ones affected, as there were also some made by fanart, that is, works created by fans that do not have any profit motive.

Tom Warren, a journalist at The Verge, received a notification that some of the content on his account had been removed following a complaint based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The complaint was filed by a representative of Tracer, which as we explained, offers AI-based services to identify online violations.

One of the images in question showed Mario smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, generated by the Grok tool, which is on the cover of this article.

Super Mario fanarts are affected

The fact that this situation also involves fan art ended up being one of the most controversial details of the entire situation, since these images are mostly just creations made by fans of the character to pay homage to him in some way.

One of the accounts, OtakuRockU, was notified that it could be banned because of “a Mario drawing”. Another user, PoyoSilly, posted an edited version of a cartoon that had been identified in the notification, replacing the Mario character with a modified version to avoid removal.

The use of characters from a franchise in inappropriate situations is something serious and can be very serious for the company. It is not possible to say exactly what these situations were, since the images have been removed and there is no longer access to them, but one of the X accounts posted one that showed Luigi and Waluigi as soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Others show Mario and Luigi with alcoholic drinks in hand and even referring to drug use.

But when it reaches innocent fanart, it ends up generating a bit of concern in online communities that are focused on sharing these types of artistic creations, raising questions about freedom of expression and the right to create works based on characters that are part of popular culture. .

Nintendo already has a history of litigation

Nintendo, a company known for its strictness regarding its copyrights, is not new to the field of legal disputes. The company recently sued the creators of the Yuzu emulator, used to run Nintendo Switch games, and is also involved in a lawsuit against the developers of Palworld, a game similar to Pokémon, for copyright infringement.

Nintendo is known for vigorously defending its intellectual property, which, on the one hand, aims to protect its creations and, on the other, often causes friction with the fan community. While the company may not be directly involved in removing the AI-generated images of Mario, it apparently uses third-party tools like Tracer to police the use of its characters.

Tracer, the company responsible for removing images, specializes in identifying possible copyright violations through artificial intelligence. The company claims to be able to automatically detect the misuse of trademarks and other types of intellectual property on the internet. This type of technology is becoming increasingly common, especially now that AI-generated content is growing in volume and diversity.

However, the effectiveness and methods used by these companies raise concerns. Automatic content removal can, in many cases, unfairly target legitimate creations, such as fan art, which have an important place in online culture.

Fonte: TheVerge