YouTubers Are Taking Snap to Court Over AI Training on Their Videos

A group of popular YouTubers has expanded its ongoing legal battle over AI and copyright to include Snap, the parent company of Snapchat. The plaintiffs allege that Snap has used their videos without permission to train AI models, including features like the app’s Imagine Lens, which allows users to generate and edit images using text prompts.

The case marks another chapter in a larger wave of legal action targeting AI companies over the use of copyrighted content. The YouTubers claim that Snap, like other tech giants, incorporated their videos into large-scale video-language datasets, including HD-VILA-100M, which were intended solely for academic and research purposes. According to the lawsuit, Snap allegedly bypassed YouTube’s technological restrictions and violated terms of service, as well as licensing limitations that explicitly prohibit commercial use.

Who’s Behind the Lawsuit

The plaintiffs are a mix of high-profile and niche creators, collectively boasting over 6.2 million subscribers. Leading the charge is the team behind the h3h3 YouTube channel, which has 5.52 million subscribers. Joining them are the smaller channels MrShortGame Golf and Golfholics, which focus on golf content.

This lawsuit is a proposed class action filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. It seeks both statutory damages and a permanent injunction to prevent Snap from allegedly continuing to use the creators’ content in AI training.

Snap isn't the first company to face legal scrutiny over using copyrighted content to train AI. Previous lawsuits have targeted giants like Meta, Nvidia, and ByteDance, highlighting a growing tension between content creators and AI developers. According to the Copyright Alliance, over 70 copyright infringement cases have now been filed against AI companies, involving publishers, authors, artists, newspapers, and other creators.

Some of these cases have already seen mixed results. For example, a judge recently ruled in favour of Meta in a dispute with authors, while Anthropic, an AI research company, has settled with authors, paying out plaintiffs to resolve their claims. Many other cases are still actively litigated, reflecting the complex legal landscape as AI technology continues to evolve.

The Takeaway

This latest lawsuit against Snap underscores a growing concern in the creator community: AI companies are increasingly using user-generated content to train models without clear consent or compensation. As AI tools like Snap’s Imagine Lens and similar platforms become more sophisticated, legal disputes over copyright and content ownership are likely to intensify.

For creators, this case represents both a warning and an opportunity. The warning is that your content could be used in ways you never intended, but the opportunity lies in asserting rights and potentially shaping the future of AI ethics and content usage. For tech companies, it’s a reminder that as AI adoption grows, compliance with copyright laws is not optional; it’s critical to avoid legal and reputational risks.