AI Found a New Way to Ruin Memes: Selling Them to Advertisers

Like almost everything else these days, AI has made its way into the world of memes and seemingly not for the better. AI has already been used to animate classic memes, often with terrifying results. It has also given birth to the yellow-tinted, cringey subgenre of Studio Ghibli-style memes that Elon Musk and the rest of Silicon Valley seem to love. Now, an AI company is facing a lawsuit that could have major implications over who gets to profit from the internet’s most recognizable memes. Philippines-based artist Elmer Saflor, known for his Superelmer webcomics, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit earlier this month against Memes Apps, the company behind Memes.ai and Memes AI Studio. Saflor accuses the company of offering one of his copyrighted comics as a template for ads through its paid AI service without his permission. The lawsuit alleges that Memes Apps allowed customers to rip off the comic to create ads for commercial purposes. The two-panel comic, commonly known as “Running Away Balloon,” first became popular online back in 2017. In the first panel, Saflor’s character Superelmer smiles while reaching for a yellow balloon labeled “opportunities.” In the second, sweat runs down his face as a large pink blob figure labeled “shyness” holds him back. © Superelmber (Facebook) The original comic has since inspired countless variations using the same format to describe the elusiveness of everything from sleep to a healthy work-life balance. Saflor told Ars Technica that he filed the lawsuit to hopefully reach the discovery phase in trial and raise “broader questions about how AI-powered platforms use creators’ work, what licensing obligations they may have, and how copyright law applies when viral Internet culture becomes a commercial product.” Saflor is asking the court to prohibit Memes Apps from using his copyrighted work and provide an accounting of any profits it earned from it. He is also seeking those profits and other damages. Memes Apps did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case could help draw a clearer legal line between casually reworking a meme for fun and using it to make money. This is not the first case to bring up these questions. In 2024, a federal appeals court upheld a jury verdict finding that former Rep. Steve King’s campaign infringed the copyright of the “Success Kid” meme when it used the image in political fundraising posts without permission. Internet law expert Eric Goldman wrote at the time that the ruling implied that “meme usage for noncommercial purposes is likely fair use, while meme usage in ads isn’t.” However, Saflor’s case is different because he is going after the company providing the meme template rather than the advertisers who used it. Goldman told Ars Technica that a ruling against Memes Apps could potentially go beyond just this particular comic and have consequences for all other meme generators and the whole meme ecosystem.