Stock image and media content provider Getty Images announced that it is suing Stability AI, the developers of the text-to-image deep learning model Stable Diffusion, according to a release on its website.
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Stable Diffusion makes it possible to create art and other kinds of visual media by entering text-based prompts. Artists have expressed their opposition to the technology, which they claim scraped the data from copyrighted works without crediting the creators.
“It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators,” the company said in a statement.
Getty Images noted that while it did provide licenses to tech firms that respected property rights, Stability AI did not fall under this category.
“Stability AI did not seek any such license from Getty Images and instead, we believe, chose to ignore viable licensing options and long‑standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand‑alone commercial interests,” said the image company.
The news comes shortly after three artists filed a class action lawsuit against Stability AI and related platforms that used AI-generated art, on the basis that creators whose work was part of the training data sets were not credited or compensated.
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