Getty Images Takes Stable Diffusion AI Creators To Court For Copying Millions Of Images – SlashGear

According to a statement by Getty Images on January 17, 2023, Getty is undertaking legal action against Stability A.I. in the High Court of Justice in London for “infringing on intellectual property rights including copyright in content owned or represented by Getty Images.” Getty Images claims that Stability A.I. illegally used its images to train its A.I. systems to further its own commercial interests, and in doing so, ignored viable licensing options and violated Getty Images’ copyright.  

Notably, Getty Images’ statement also clarifies the firm’s stance on A.I. art in general, stating that “intelligence has the potential to stimulate creative endeavors,” and Getty Images has provided licenses to several unspecified A.I. companies for the purpose of training their A.I. systems. 

Stability A.I. is the creator of an open-source A.I. art generator called Stable Diffusion, and the company aims to democratize artificial intelligence. Stable Diffusion Version 2.0, which was launched in November 2022, uses text prompts to generate high-fidelity images — one of the things opposed by many artists, but embraced by others who see the potential for easy generation of one-off assets for social media, video, or other creative works.