Stabilize AI and Midjourney—two of the biggest names in the booming field of AI-generated images—and portfolio website DeviantArt have been the target of a class-action lawsuit, filed in California on behalf of artists.
As we mentioned before, AI-generated images are a highly controversial areaa place “Artists write algorithms not to follow a set of rules, but to ‘learn’ a particular aesthetic by analyzing thousands of images. The algorithm then tries to generate new images that conform to the aesthetic it has learned.”
The lawsuit was brought by three plaintiffs, all artists: Sarah Andersen (of Sarah’s doodles), Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortizwho on behalf of all affected artists is “claiming for damages caused by Stability AI, DeviantArt and Midjourney, and asking for an injunction to prevent future harm.”
It makes many serious allegations:
The lawsuit alleges direct piracy, indirect piracy related to forgery, violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), violation of class members’ right to publicity , breach of contract related to DeviantArt Terms of Service and various other violations of California unfair competition law.
As attorney Matthew Butterick said in my article about the caseThe three companies are being targeted by “writers, artists, programmers and other creators” who are “concerned about AI systems being trained on large amounts of copyrighted work.” without consent, without credit and without compensation”.
Stable AI (stable diffuser) and Midjourney are the companies behind the two most popular AI-powered art platforms, while DeviantArt—best known as a community and portfolio art website—was included. for her job in fucking massively.
For more technical details on the suit—or contact details if you’re an artist and interested in participating—you can check out Butterick’s post here.
