Three Artists Sue Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt for Copyright Infringement

On January 16, 2023, a class-action lawsuit was initiated by artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt. They accuse these companies of unlawfully utilizing their copyrighted works to develop AI image generators. The lawsuit asserts that Stability AI's Stable Diffusion was trained using five billion copyrighted images, which enabled Midjourney and DeviantArt to mimic the artists' unique styles. Attorney Matthew Butterick characterized the lawsuit as a step towards promoting ethical AI, cautioning about possible repercussions for the art market. Additionally, Butterick and the Joseph Saveri law firm are pursuing a similar case against Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI from November 2022. Stability AI contends that the lawsuit misinterprets fair use, while Getty Images has also filed a lawsuit against them in the UK for the unauthorized use of millions of images.