"Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse Enters Public Domain, Inspires AI-Driven Horror Film"

Early Mickey Mouse cartoons from 1928 have entered the public domain, prompting AI enthusiasts to create a new image generator model that can produce images based on these cartoons. The model, available on Hugging Face, was trained on stills from "Steamboat Willie," "Plane Crazy," and "The Gallopin' Gaucho." While the AI-generated images are not perfect and the legality of using copyrighted training data remains unresolved, the move has sparked a wave of creative and potentially controversial uses of the iconic character's image. This development also raises questions about the legal nuances of AI-generated content and the implications of trademark laws on the use of the Mickey Mouse name.