AI generated art has become a rather unsavoury topic as of late. As AI art tools such as Midjourney or Stable Diffusion create images from art many claim to be stolen, real artists are furious at the technology’s spread.
Tools such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have been proven to be able to completely imitate a real artist’s style. Previously, Pokémon artist RJ Palmer showed evidence of AI users recreating his style with art generators.
In response to the ongoing controversy surrounding AI art tools, a class action lawsuit has been filed against the tech’s biggest companies. Filed in California, the lawsuit has been filed on behalf of artists that are having their work stolen by generative art tools.
Three artists are behind the suit: Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz. The artists are “seeking compensation for damages caused by Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney, and an injunction to prevent future harms” on behalf of all affected artists.
The lawsuit targets specific companies Stable Diffusion, Stability AI and DeviantArt, the latter simply an art portfolio website. Interestingly, the lawsuit avoids other AI art tools and portfolio websites, namely Midjourney and ArtStation.
The suit alleges that the targeted parties are in “direct copyright infringement”, infringement “related to forgeries” and violation of “class members’ rights of publicity”. In DeviantArt’s case, the lawsuit claims that the company is in “breach of contract related to the DeviantArt Terms of Service”.
AI isn’t only targeting artists for generative content. In fact, generative content is also coming for other industries, including writing. For example, Microsoft-owned news website MSN, still used by millions, has replaced human writers with AI generated articles.
AI generation is becoming a large part of the internet, with many believing it will amount for a large percentage of online content. However, it is still yet to be seen whether or not generative content will take over the internet.