Shanghai court awards MiHoYo $112,000 in AI voice cloning case

A Shanghai court has ruled in favor of MiHoYo after finding that an unnamed generative AI developer inappropriately reproduced and sold the voices of Genshin Impact characters. The court ordered the defendant to pay ¥750,000 (approximately $112,000) in damages and cease distributing the assets.

According to Chinese publication The Paper, this marks Shanghai's first case concerning unfair competition through AI recreation of voiceover work. MiHoYo accused the defendant of using generative AI to replicate the voices of 63 Genshin Impact characters while also utilizing game images and story animations to advertise and sell the illegal voice packs.

The court determined the defendant's actions "demonstrated an intent to capitalize on the game's popularity." The ruling was issued on June 30, with the defendant briefly appealing before withdrawing the appeal in recent months.

This case offers guidance on how Chinese courts will assess generative AI use involving copyrighted material like video game character likenesses. The ruling addresses a growing concern: third-party companies creating and selling tools that allow users to recreate copyrighted content without permission or compensation. In 2023, voice actors including Victoria Atkin and Tim Friedlander reported seeing their work recreated by players using third-party AI voice tools in game mods.

The decision specifically concerns replicated and sold copyrighted material rather than the broader question of using copyrighted content as training data for AI systems, an issue still being debated across jurisdictions.