News-AI-ModelForge-Instagram-Lawsuit-2026
Three women filed a lawsuit in Arizona against Jackson Webb, Lucas Webb, Beau Schultz, and 50 unnamed defendants (John Does) alleging the men scraped photographs from their Instagram accounts and used artificial intelligence to generate pornographic images and videos depicting the women without consent. The suit was filed in January 2026 but received widespread media coverage in early May 2026.[1]
Allegations
The complaint alleges that the defendants operated AI ModelForge, a platform that taught subscribers how to create AI-generated "influencers" using a software tool called CreatorCore. For $24.95 per month on the platform Whop, the men sold courses providing a "playbook" including "instructions on how to pick the right person so that it's not someone who can defend themselves."[1]
The defendants allegedly created "Blueprints" for scraping images from women's social media accounts, feeding them into CreatorCore's generative AI model, and using a separate app to remove the women's clothes and generate sexually explicit images and videos. The resulting content was sold on the subscription platform Fanvue and posted on Instagram and TikTok.[1]
By 2025, CreatorCore reportedly had more than 8,000 subscribers generating over 500,000 images and videos. One plaintiff, identified as MG, alleged the scheme generated more than $50,000 in a single month from millions of views.[1]
Legal Claims
The plaintiffs assert claims including:
- Violation of right of publicity
- Invasion of privacy
- Unauthorized commercial use of likeness
- Scraping of social media content without consent
- Creation and distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery
All claims arise in the context of AI-generated synthetic media.[1]
Significance
The case represents a novel intersection of right of publicity law, social media scraping liability, and AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery. It is among the first lawsuits to target the business model of AI "influencer" generation platforms that monetize the unauthorized use of real individuals' likenesses. The outcome could establish important precedent for liability of both platform operators and individual users who create AI-generated content using scraped personal images.