Tony Robbins Sues Over Unauthorized AI Chatbots – Variety
By Gene Maddaus
Senior Media Writer
On YesChat, users can unleash their “inner cynic” with help from a Larry David bot. Or “explore Jewish wisdom” with another Larry David bot. Or workshop horror stories with a Stephen King bot. Or chat about criticism with Roger Ebert.
It’s unlikely that any of the celebrities whose names appear on these bots have anything to do with them.
Last month, Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, sued the makers of YesChat, accusing them of hijacking his name and reputation for a series of bots on the site. Among them: Talk to Tony Robbins, Tony Robbins GPT, and Tony Robbins Español GPT.
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Robbins alleges that the unauthorized bots ingested his seminars and other copyrighted content, and are essentially reselling it under his name, which he has trademarked. YesChat has various paid subscription tiers, ranging from $8/month to $40/month, giving users access to 200,000 GPTs.
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The lawsuit alleges that the bots are competing with Robbins’ own, authorized AI clone, which is available on his website for $99/month.
Brian Wolf, the attorney who filed the case, said it’s the first such suit that he’s aware of.
“I don’t know that there’s been another situation where a public figure or celebrity has filed a claim against a GPT chatbot replica, where they’ve created a chatbot to mimic the persona of a well known individual,” he said.
YesChat did not respond to Wolf’s cease and desist letter. The companies behind it — InnoLeap and Mira Muse — have also yet to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in San Diego on June 26.
The suit alleges federal trademark and false advertising claims, as well as a violation of California’s right of publicity law. The suit seeks at least $10 million in compensatory damages for unfair competition, plus $2 million for each trademark violation, plus punitive damages for “willful and malicious misconduct.”
Other creators have filed numerous lawsuits over the unauthorized use of copyrighted material to train AI models. AI companies have had some success arguing that such training constitutes “fair use,” but Wolf says this case is different.
“Those cases are different than this case, where they’re mimicking and recreating a virtual persona of a well known individual and advertising it as such,” said Wolf, of Lavely & Singer. “We represent innumerable celebrities and public figures, and we take a pretty aggressive approach on behalf of those clients.”
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