Disney and Universal recently filed suit against Midjourney, an AI image generation startup, alleging the company has become a “bottomless pit of plagiarism,” and that it freely reproduces the studio's copyrighted content, including their most iconic characters. The lawsuit has the potential to shape how intellectual property is treated in the AI era. So, we'll dive into the details of the case and others, and explain how this conflict gives us a window into the growing tensions between AI companies, publishers, and creators.

Meta just announced a major move in its AI efforts – investing in Scale AI and building a superintelligence AI research lab. While Meta has been trying to keep up with big names in the AI race, such as Open AI, Anthropic and Google, the company's new strategy includes dropping some serious cash to acquire talent and invest in Scale AI. Today on the show, we dive into the deal between Meta and Scale AI, including what Meta aims to get out of investment, and we ask the question we are all wondering: What is superhuman intelligence, anyway?

You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.

In recent days, Los Angeles residents have taken to the streets to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the increasingly frequent ICE raids. WIRED’s Senior Politics Editor Leah Feiger joins Zoë Schiffer, Director of Business & Industry, to discuss the related flood of information on social media, and how AI chatbots like Grok and ChatGPT are delivering incorrect and at times, inflammatory answers.

Articles mentioned in today’s episode:

• AI Chatbots Are Making LA Protest Disinformation Worse
• I Joined Every Class Action Lawsuit I Could Find, and So Can You
• Vibe Coding Is Coming for Engineering Jobs

You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky @zoeschiffer and Leah Feiger @leahfeiger.