Artists Sue AI Generators For Use Of Work Protected By Copyright

Late last year, the online art community banded together to rally against the proliferation of art created by artificial-intelligence generators, which had clogged up many of the artists’ usual portfolio sites. 

The matter wasn’t helped by an admission from the creator of Midjourney—one of the most popular AI art generators—that the tool had fed at least “a hundred million” artworks to its algorithm without the consent of originators. 

As such, a class-action lawsuit was recently launched against Midjourney, well-known art site DeviantArt, and Stability AI, all of which share the use of the artificial intelligence product Stable Diffusion. 

This program, which is used to create AI artworks, has been known to have trained its program on “billions of copyrighted images” from the LAION-5B dataset, without any compensation or consent from the creators. 

The complaint alleges various instances of copyright infringement, violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), affronts of class members’ rights of publicity, breach of contract related to DeviantArt, and other violations of California’s unfair competition laws.

Seeking compensation for damages and an injunction to prevent future harms, the plaintiffs—watercolor and acryla gouache painter Kelly McKernan, concept artist Karla Ortiz, and Sarah Andersen behind famed comic Sarah’s Scribbles—claim the artwork created by these sites has resulted in “products that infringe the rights of artists and other creative individuals under the guise of alleged ‘artificial intelligence.’”

It’s no surprise artists are wary of AI art tools, considering how these generators could soon “replace the very artists whose stolen works power these AI products with whom they are competing,” as the lawsuit puts it, which could eventually eliminate artists altogether. 

“As burgeoning technology continues to change every aspect of the modern world, it’s critical that we recognize and protect the rights of artists against unlawful theft and fraud,” explains Joseph Saveri, founder of the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP.

2/ I am proud to be one of the plaintiffs named for this class action suit. I am proud to do this with fellow peers, that we’ll give a voice to potentially thousands of affected artists. I'm proud that now we fight for our rights not just in the public sphere but in the courts!

— Karla Ortiz 🐀 (@kortizart) January 15, 2023

[via CBR.com, Ars Technica, and Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP / PR Newswire, cover image via Miriam Doerr | Dreamstime.com]