Meta claims downloaded porn was for personal use, not to train AI

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Meta is in court this week trying to swat down one of the weirdest lawsuits in recent AI history, an accusation that it illegally torrented porn to train its artificial intelligence. Yes, really.

Adult film studio Strike 3 Holdings claims it caught Meta downloading some of its copyrighted films from company IP addresses and even accuses the tech giant of hiding additional downloads through a “stealth network” of 2,500 secret IPs. 

Strike 3 says Meta was secretly feeding these clips into its AI video generator, “Movie Gen,” and wants damages north of $350 million. (Via: Ars Technica)

Meta’s response? A resounding “absolutely not.” 

In a motion to dismiss filed Monday, Meta called the lawsuit pure “guesswork and innuendo,” labeling Strike 3 a known “copyright troll” with a habit of filing “extortive lawsuits.” 

The company insists there’s no proof that it directed or even knew about the downloads, or that its AI models have ever touched adult content.

Instead, Meta says the much simpler explanation is the correct one: a few employees (or, you know, random contractors, visitors, or repair techs) downloaded a handful of adult movies for “private personal use.” 

Meta says the activity, about 22 downloads per year since 2018, hardly qualifies as a corporate AI operation. 

“The far more plausible inference,” Meta wrote, “is that disparate individuals downloaded adult videos for personal use.” Not an AI conspiracy, just office bandwidth misuse.

Meta also points out that the alleged downloads predate its major AI research by several years and that its terms of service ban adult content anyway. 

As for that supposed “stealth network” of 2,500 hidden IPs? Meta says that the claim makes no sense. Why hide some downloads and leave others tied directly to company servers?

Meta’s argument boils down to: we didn’t do it, we wouldn’t do it, and even if someone did, it probably wasn’t us. 

Strike 3 has two weeks to respond, and for once, Silicon Valley might be rooting for the big tech company accused not of stealing porn.