Stock image agency Getty Images has announced it is taking legal action against the developers of an artificial intelligence (AI) image-creation tool. The company claims that Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion system has infringed on the rights of photographers and illustrators represented by Getty Images.
The system uses AI to create images based on simple text instructions, learning by analyzing human-made pictures found online. Many artists and photographers have complained that these AI generators use their work without permission. Some find the technology a valuable tool for creative expression, while others worry that it can convincingly imitate their style and produce images in seconds.
Getty Images is alleging that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright, and ignored viable licensing options and legal protections. CEO Craig Peters said that Stability AI’s use of Getty Images’ work was not “supported by the law, and we believe content owners should have a say in how their work is used.” Stability AI’s founder, Emad Mostaque, has previously stated that Stable Diffusion is trained using a compressed file of “100,000GB of images” scraped from the internet, and has said he is working on tools to enable artists and creators to opt out.
This legal action follows a class-action lawsuit against Stability AI, and two other defendants, in California, where three artists are alleging that Stable Diffusion is “merely a complex collage tool”, trained using “countless copyrighted images” and they are trying to protect artists from “this blatant and enormous infringement of their rights, before their professions are eliminated by a computer program powered entirely by their hard work.”
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