LeBron James sends cease-and-desist letters over AI videos showing him pregnant: Everything to know

LeBron James is seemingly done with images of him generated with AI. According to a report by Complex from July 25, his legal representatives sent out cease-and-desist letters to Interlink AI, which allegedly produced images of the player showing him pregnant.

For the unversed, Interlink AI is a tool based on FlickUp through which users can generate images. According to 404 Media, last month, the users of Interlink AI were told that the admins decided to pull back “realistic people models.”

The mods explained that they made this change because of legal problems involving a basketball player. To prevent more trouble, they decided to remove all realistic images of people from the site. FlickUp founder Jason Stacks told the outlet that the player was none other than LeBron James. He said:

“A couple weeks ago, we received a cease and desist letter from LeBron James' attorney about one of our creators, Interlink AI. In collaboration with Interlink, we had been promoting an AI model trained on LeBron James and a few other iconic basketball players.”

He went on:

“Within 30 minutes of receiving the cease and desist, we made the decision to remove all realistic people from Interlink AI's software. 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.”

Jason Stacks said he wanted to resolve the issue with LeBron James

Besides the statement to 404 Media, Jason Stacks also posted a self-recorded video on Instagram on June 27, saying he was “f**ked.” He explained that he launched FlickUp two months ago, calling it the YouTube of AI.

The videos that were posted on Instagram gained millions of views, but they had to be taken down. Stacks shared that the idea behind the platform was to help creators make more money. He showed a glimpse of the letter he received from LeBron James’s legal representatives. Sharing his message to the player, he said:

“LeBron, if you are watching this, lets squash the beef bro. Please.”

In November 2024, James announced he would take some time off social media platforms. At the time, his statement came after entrepreneur Rich Kleiman wrote that everyone knew sports were one of the few activities that brought people together, and fails to understand why the coverage of the same continues to be done often in a negative light.

He said it only felt like clickbait when others said it, but with such a big platform, they could choose to change things and give people a break from negativity. He felt all the negativity was just a waste of time.

According to The Guardian, LeBron James seemingly agreed with Kleiman’s statement. He then wrote about logging out of social media platforms briefly.

In 2018, during a press conference, James was asked how he adjusted to social media criticism. LeBron James explained that when he first joined the NBA, there was no social media. Criticism took a while to reach him because it had to pass through several people.

Later, when social media became popular, it seemed exciting at first, but he realized it could be harmful if he paid too much attention to it. He said some people online just tried to bring others down, even though they didn’t know him, didn’t understand what they were talking about, and had never been in his position.

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Also read: "Go back to L.A." — LeBron James gets booed outside Fanatics Fest in New York City over the weekend

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