Meta has categorically denied allegations that it utilized pirated adult videos to train its artificial intelligence systems, labeling a recent lawsuit from adult film studio Strike 3 Holdings as “nonsensical and unsupported.” The company asserted that its AI models have never been trained on explicit content and suggested that any downloads from its network were likely conducted by individuals for personal use. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit claims that Meta’s corporate IP addresses were associated with the illegal downloading of over 2,300 copyrighted adult films owned by Strike 3 Holdings through BitTorrent.
The studio, which refers to its catalog as “award-winning and critically acclaimed,” has accused Meta of using these videos to train its AI models, including Movie Gen, the video generator, and the LLaMA large language model. Strike 3 is seeking $350 million in damages. However, Meta rejected the accusations, stating that there are “no facts to suggest that Meta has ever trained an AI model on adult images or video, much less intentionally so,” as noted in its court filing referenced by Ars Technica. The company contended that the lawsuit’s claims are speculative and lack credible evidence linking any alleged downloads to its AI programs.
“The far more plausible inference to be drawn from such meager, uncoordinated activity is that disparate individuals downloaded adult videos for personal use,” Meta stated in its response, dismissing any connection between the activity and company research or AI development. Furthermore, Meta highlighted that the timeline presented by Strike 3 undermines the lawsuit. The alleged downloads occurred in 2018—years before Meta launched its significant multimodal AI research in 2022. This inconsistency, the company argued, weakens the lawsuit’s primary assertion that the videos were used in AI training. Addressing the matter further, Meta emphasized that its policies strictly forbid the use or creation of adult content in AI systems.
“We don’t want this type of content, and we take deliberate steps to avoid training on this kind of material,” the company stated. It also criticized the notion that pornography could enhance AI model performance as “inaccurate and absurd.” Meta acknowledged the difficulty in tracking each download throughout its extensive corporate infrastructure, indicating that “monitoring every file downloaded by any person using Meta’s global network would be an extraordinarily complex and invasive undertaking.” The company added that Strike 3 did not identify who was responsible for the alleged downloads or how those actions could be connected to any Meta project. In its filing, Meta accused Strike 3 of using “extortive” legal tactics, citing the studio’s history of filing numerous lawsuits.
“Plaintiffs go to great lengths to stitch this narrative together with guesswork and innuendo, but their claims are neither cogent nor supported by well-pleaded facts,” Meta wrote. The company has requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit entirely, reiterating that the allegations are baseless and lack evidentiary support.