aceWho owns ‘brain rot’? Inside the international legal drama over a beloved meme
One of the most beloved characters in an absurdist genre of online video content has become the center of an international legal battle that could determine where human creativity ends and artificial intelligence begins. Tung Tung Tung Sahur, also known as Triple T, was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen who goes by the username Noxa, using OpenAI’s image-generation tool. Based on a kentongan – a type of drum used to wake south-east Asian Muslims for their pre-dawn meal during Ramadan – the character is an an…
An image tool let a teenager create a character that spread worldwide and became a revenue-generating franchise across video, merchandise and games.
The same character is now the subject of a lawsuit because US copyright law may not protect sparsely prompted AI output, leaving ownership and creator compensation unresolved.
The legal standard for ownership of AI-assisted creations is unsettled, and the case is still pending, so the article cannot say how courts will treat this character.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-06
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-1442, v1: “Who owns ‘brain rot’? Inside the international legal drama over a beloved meme.” Truvace, 2026-10-15. /record/TRV-2026-1442 (accessed at citation time). sha256 5c88dbee4afa2c8c…
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