正文 · AI 翻译
IT Home reported on November 12 that, as AI is widely used to generate artwork, videos and even video game assets, the technology has developed faster than copyright safeguards have improved. Now the game industry is beginning to take action. The latest indication is that Anthropic, the developer of Claude, has added restrictions to its large language model that prohibit users from generating game assets using Pokémon-related intellectual property.
IT Home noted that the finding initially came from user feedback collected by the Japanese outlet Automaton. Several users found that Claude directly refused to help when they tried to use it to develop Pokémon-inspired fan games.
A user named Big Kid Nation appears to be developing an unofficial Pokémon game with AI. Screenshots he shared show that Claude refused a request to generate game assets using sprites that clearly depicted Pokémon characters.
The user then asked whether it would change Claude's response if the assets were already saved on his own computer. Claude's answer was still no, and it said it would not use any content that appeared similar to Pokémon intellectual property to generate assets.
Claude's restrictions cover more than characters: they also extend to music, levels and names
X user chasm further analyzed Claude's code and appears to have identified the Pokémon-related content that the model currently explicitly restricts.
The restrictions cover music, stages and levels, character appearances, names and the characters themselves. The rejection of Big Kid Nation's earlier request to generate sprites likely involved both the character and appearance restrictions.
Claude's reluctance to help users make Pokémon games with AI appears to be an extension of an earlier copyright protection update.
Previously, a growing number of people had begun using AI to copy other developers' video games. Some even tried to use AI to generate similar works before the original games had been officially released. This phenomenon is gradually becoming an issue of concern.
Anthropic had previously updated Claude in an attempt to stop users from using the model to copy existing video games and pass off the generated works as their own original creations. The update used relatively broad restrictions intended to cover the entire video game industry.
However, the earlier restrictions mainly targeted the wholesale copying of video game content. Its refusal to generate Pokémon-related assets is the first known instance of Claude imposing an explicit restriction on a specific game franchise.
It is unsurprising that Anthropic chose Pokémon as the starting point for this kind of measure. For one thing, Pokémon may be among the game franchises Claude users most frequently ask the model to imitate. For another, Anthropic could face considerable legal risk if it allowed users to generate content containing Pokémon characters, music and other copyrighted elements with AI, or even to make complete unofficial Pokémon games.
If The Pokémon Company and Nintendo decide that matters have gone beyond acceptable limits and take legal action against Claude's developer, the resulting dispute could become very difficult to resolve.
For now, these restrictions show that AI companies are trying to define copyright boundaries for generative AI. As the barriers to making game assets and complete games with AI continue to fall, preventing models from directly copying existing game IP will also become an issue the entire game industry cannot avoid.