Cameo sues OpenAI for trademark infringement over new AI-generated celebrity video app

Cameo, the Chicago-based celebrity video messaging website, has become the latest company to sue OpenAI, alleging trademark infringement for the technology giant’s new service that makes AI-generated celebrity videos under the same Cameo name.

The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 28 in a California federal court, said the recent rollout of the “Cameo” feature as part of Sora, OpenAI’s video generation app, has already created growing “consumer confusion” with widely shared videos featuring celebrity likenesses—often in unusual settings.

For Cameo the company, which created its own niche selling personalized videos from actual celebrities, the use of its trademarked brand by OpenAI for a similar purpose represents a threat to its business model.

“It’s very clear that they’re trying to have this new emerging technology cause confusion, and for us, it can be existential,” Steven Galanis, 37, Cameo’s co-founder and CEO, told the Tribune. “It could destroy our business.”

OpenAI, the privately held San Francisco-based technology company behind ChatGPT and a leader in the exploding artificial intelligence space, issued an emailed statement in response to the lawsuit Wednesday.

“We’re reviewing the complaint, but we disagree that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word ‘cameo,'” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

Launched in September, the Cameo feature enables users of OpenAI’s new Sora app to incorporate celebrity likenesses into their own AI-generated text-to-video creations. Celebrities such as Jake Paul and Mark Cuban have “opened” up their likenesses to use for Cameo videos on the Sora platform, many of which have already been widely shared on social media.

Others are using deceased celebrities to make videos, with everyone from children’s TV host Fred Rogers to PBS painting guru Bob Ross popping up in new Sora Cameos online. The creativity often runs amuck, with one AI-generated “Mister Rogers” participating in a “Jackass” stunt where he rides a scooter off a pier into a lake, drenching his signature red cardigan.

The proliferation of TikTok-style Sora Cameo videos on social media is no joke to Galanis, however, especially as the service gains traction with more participating living celebrities.

“Imagine if you Google ‘Cameo,’ and instead of seeing videos from Snoop Dogg or Magic Johnson that are super heartfelt and authentic, you’re seeing AI slop like Jake Paul boxing Mark Cuban on Mars,” Galanis said. “I don’t have a problem with the technology. I have a problem with what they’re calling it.”

The search engine issue could become even more acute with OpenAI’s unveiling last week of ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser built to compete with Google Chrome.

Launched in 2017, Cameo pioneered an online platform for fans to buy personalized video greetings from an eclectic group of stars, rocketing to unicorn status during the pandemic when lockdowns and social distancing turned everything from funeral services to bris ceremonies into virtual events.

The current Cameo talent roster features thousands of celebrities, including actors, athletes, comedians, musicians and social media influencers, ranging from onetime heartthrob singer Engelbert Humperdinck to recently pardoned George Santos, a former congressman.

Booming during the pandemic, Cameo struggled in the post-pandemic landscape, losing money and slashing costs through three rounds of layoffs during 2022 and 2023 that reduced the headcount from 347 employees in 38 states and 13 countries down to skeleton staff of 32 workers.

But business has been picking up, with the company returning to profitability and rebuilding its workforce.

In February, Cameo offered its Chicago-area employees a $10,000 raise to return from their remote locations and work full time at the company’s Fulton Market office. Since then, the Chicago office has grown from 26 to 40 employees, Galanis said. The company now has about 60 employees overall.

Suing OpenAI, which is valued at $500 billion and whose ChatGPT app now has over 800 million weekly active users, was not a decision that Galanis took lightly. But with his own company’s future at stake, he felt litigation was the only option after OpenAI “refused to stop using the Cameo name” during an attempt to resolve the situation amicably.

The trademark lawsuit is seeking OpenAI be enjoined from using the words “Cameo” or “Cameos” in connection with its services, as well as undisclosed damages.

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