A collective of YouTube creators, who have initiated legal action against technology companies for allegedly using their videos without authorization to develop artificial intelligence systems, has expanded their litigation to include Snap. The plaintiffs—operators of three YouTube channels with a combined subscriber base of approximately 6.2 million—contend that Snap utilized their video content to train its AI. This technology reportedly powers features such as the app's "Imagine Lens," a tool for editing images through text commands.

These content creators previously filed comparable lawsuits targeting Nvidia, Meta, and ByteDance. In the new proposed class action, submitted on Friday to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the YouTubers specifically accuse Snap of employing datasets like HD-VILA-100M. These datasets, intended solely for academic and research applications, were allegedly repurposed by Snap for commercial gain.

The plaintiffs assert that Snap bypassed YouTube's technical safeguards, terms of service, and licensing agreements, all of which restrict commercial usage. The lawsuit demands statutory damages and a permanent court order to halt the ongoing alleged copyright violations.

The legal action is spearheaded by the creators behind the h3h3 YouTube channel, which boasts 5.52 million subscribers, along with the smaller golf-focused channels MrShortGame Golf and Golfoholics. This case joins a growing number of lawsuits where content creators are challenging AI model providers, following similar disputes involving publishers, authors, newspapers, user-generated content platforms, and artists.

It is also not the inaugural case brought by a YouTuber. Data from the non-profit Copyright Alliance indicates that more than 70 copyright infringement cases have been lodged against AI firms. Outcomes have varied; for instance, a judge ruled in favor of Meta in a dispute with a group of authors, while Anthropic opted to settle and compensate plaintiffs in another case. Numerous lawsuits remain actively in progress.

A request for comment was directed to Snap.