Did LeBron James really punch Luka Doncic? Debunking viral AI video spreading rapidly across social media platforms

The concept of artificial intelligence can be frightening. LeBron James is thus setting a clear boundary at a time when deepfakes make it difficult to distinguish between fiction and defamation.

A crazy AI movie that purports to depict LeBron James punching Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, and others is making the rounds.

It also appears to be very realistic.Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Bronny James, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Davis are all on the list of individuals whom LeBron punched in this blatantly phony film. However, ironically, this wasn’t the first time an AI video of James went viral.

No, LeBron James did not punch Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Michael Jordan and other NBA giants

An AI-generated image of LeBron twerking marked the end of the video. The caption of the video read:“I open the neighbor’s Wi-Fi, swipe my finger, see the most random and nonsensical video I’ve ever watched, close the neighbor’s Wi-Fi..”Millions of people have viewed the posts on X that share this. It's difficult to think that someone could make such footage so easily, but they can, and it challenges many common beliefs about seeing is believing.

This isn't real, though. However, this is not the first instance of this kind of event occurring. A burgeoning legal struggle against the misuse of artificial intelligence now centers on the NBA legend.

After unsettling AI-generated films with James' likeness, including one that showed him as pregnant, went viral, James and his legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to FlickUp, the firm that created Interlink AI.Interlink AI, a Discord-hosted video-generation application that allows users to produce incredibly lifelike films of celebrities without their permission, is at the heart of the dispute. Stephen Curry, Nikola Jokić, LeBron James, and others unintentionally became avatars in a virtual playground that swiftly descended into grotesqueness.According to 404 Media, one video, which showed an AI-generated Sean "Diddy" Combs s*xually attacking a dummy Steph Curry in a prison environment while an expressionless AI LeBron James watched in the background, garnered over 6.2 million Instagram views. Others depicted James reaching out to Curry while clutching a pregnant belly, kneeling with his tongue out, or homeless.

LeBron James has previously taken legal actions against disturbing AI videos trying to defame him

FlickUp founder Jason Stacks in an Instagram Reel said:“This is a letter from one of the biggest NBA players of all time. Two months ago, I launched the YouTube AI video. It was a fun idea to help creators make some more money. But then people started noticing… Like this guy, yeah, LeBron James. And he wasn’t happy, because I got this cease-and-desist from his team.”Stacks said that the attention caught him off guard and that he deleted all realistic users from the platform within 30 minutes of receiving the legal warning from Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. He said to 404 Media:“We removed the models immediately and have since updated our approach to likeness and public figure policies.. That’s really the full story on our end.”Now, following this, The makers of AI-generated videos that featured James' likeness allegedly received cease-and-desist letters from his legal team.

Attorneys for James submitted a cease-and-desist letter to the developers of Interlink AI, a Discord community and AI program that enabled users create films of NBA players, according to 404 Media.James' lawyer sent him a letter "a couple of weeks ago," according to Jason Stacks, founder of the AI generation platform FlickUp, which houses Interlink. He further said:“Within 30 minutes of receiving the cease and desist, we made the decision to remove all realistic people from Interlink AI's software,” Stacks told 404 Media, confirming the letter came from the law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks. “Generative AI is the ‘wild west’ when it comes to copyright & IP, but we're committed to being on the right side of that change…”Nevertheless, James hasn’t said anything about the recent AI video as of yet.