Runway’s AI Video Generator Uses Thousands of YouTube Videos

Runway trained its AI text-to-video generator on thousands of YouTube videos and pirated films, according to 404 Media. A spreadsheet of training data obtained by the outlet includes links to YouTube channels from major entertainment companies like Netflix, Disney, Nintendo, and Rockstar Games. It also includes content from creators like MKBHD, Linus Tech Tips, and Sam Kolder.

Additionally, there are links to channels owned by news outlets such as The New Yorker, Reuters, and Wired. A former Runway employee told 404 Media that finding quality videos for training was a company-wide effort. These videos were then downloaded using a massive web crawler, with proxies to avoid being blocked by Google.

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Runway is an AI startup funded by Alphabet and Nvidia. It has created tools that allow users to make realistic AI videos and capture specific animation styles. Runway’s latest tool, Gen-3 Alpha, launched in June and can create videos in any style. Like other AI models, Gen-3 Alpha needs a wide range of content for training.

404 Media found that Runway’s dataset includes links to piracy sites like KissCartoon, which offers free anime and animated content. It’s unclear if all the videos in the spreadsheet were used to train Gen-3 Alpha. In June, Runway cofounder Anastasis Germanidis told TechCrunch the company uses “curated, internal datasets” but gave no further details.

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Google referred The Verge to a statement from YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who said training AI on YouTube videos violates its policies. The Verge reached out to Runway for comment but didn’t hear back.

Runway isn’t the only AI company using YouTube for training data. Earlier this year, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati said she was unsure if their text-to-video generator, Sora, trained on YouTube. Proof News and Wired reported that Anthropic, Apple, Nvidia, and Salesforce trained their AI models on over 170,000 YouTube videos.

Source: Runway’s AI video generator trained on thousands of scraped YouTube videos