Nintendo Denies Lobbying Japanese Government Over AI, Will “Take Necessary Actions” Over IP Rights

Nintendo has released a brief statement refuting claims that it has pressured the Japanese government concerning generative AI.

The post on X followed a tweet from Japanese politician Satoshi Asano, who initially asserted that the company had been influencing the government’s stance on generative AI.

Here is the complete statement, as presented in English after the initial Japanese version:

In contrast to recent online discussions, Nintendo has had no communication with the Japanese government regarding generative AI. Whether generative AI is engaged or not, we will persist in taking necessary measures against violations of our intellectual property rights.

Mr. Asano has since removed his original post and issued an apology, linking to Nintendo’s statement in one. Here’s the text of his subsequent post, as translated via X:

In reference to the content I shared the other day, there was a part containing misinformation, which I have rectified as follows. I deeply regret my failure to verify the facts adequately. I would like to sincerely apologize to all involved parties and will endeavor to avoid any recurrence. Additionally, regarding the original post that contained the erroneous information, it has been confirmed that it is being circulated again after appearing in X’s trends, so to halt the further dissemination of information that deviates from the facts and to prevent causing additional issues, I have just deleted it. Once again, I will take this as a lesson and apply it moving forward.

This occurs as contentious generative AI technology is being increasingly utilized in the realm of game creation, shortly after Open AI’s Sora 2 went live and was rapidly populated with unofficial video clips created through user prompts featuring Nintendo characters.

Earlier in April, discussing generative AI, NOA president Doug Bowser stated: “We continue to believe that what distinguishes our games is our developers, their artistic talent and their comprehension of how people play, so there will always, always, be a human touch and human interaction in how we create and develop our games.”