YouTubers Sue Snap Over Alleged Copyright Infringement in AI Training

A group of YouTubers who have been pursuing legal action against major technology companies for allegedly using their videos to train AI models without permission have now filed a lawsuit against Snap. The creators — who collectively run three YouTube channels with a combined subscriber base of roughly 6.2 million — claim Snap used their video content to train its artificial intelligence systems, including features such as the “Imagine Lens,” which lets users generate and edit images using text prompts.

The same plaintiffs have previously brought similar copyright lawsuits against Nvidia, Meta, and ByteDance, alleging unauthorised use of their content in AI training.

In the newly filed proposed class action, submitted Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the YouTubers allege that Snap relied on large-scale video-language datasets, including HD-VILA-100M, as well as other datasets created for academic and research use. The lawsuit claims that Snap bypassed YouTube’s technical safeguards, terms of service, and licensing restrictions — which prohibit commercial use — to use these datasets for commercial AI development.

The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages and a permanent injunction to halt the alleged copyright violations.

The case is being led by the creators behind the h3h3 YouTube channel, which has approximately 5.52 million subscribers, along with smaller golf-focused channels MrShortGame Golf and Golfholics.

The lawsuit adds to a growing wave of legal actions brought by content creators against companies developing AI models. These disputes span a wide range of industries and plaintiffs, including publishers, authors, news organisations, user-generated content platforms, visual artists, and others. The case is also part of a broader trend involving YouTubers specifically. According to the nonprofit Copyright Alliance, more than 70 copyright infringement lawsuits have now been filed against AI companies.

Court outcomes in these cases have varied. In some instances, such as a lawsuit between Meta and a group of authors, judges have ruled in favour of the technology companies. In others, including a case involving Anthropic and a group of authors, the AI firm agreed to settle and compensate the plaintiffs. Many similar cases remain ongoing.

Snap was contacted for comment. TechAmerica.ai said it will update its coverage if the company responds.