Stability, Midjourney, Runway hit back in AI art lawsuit

The ongoing class-action copyright battle between artists and AI image generation companies has reached a new chapter. The defendants, including Stability AI, Midjourney, Runway, and DeviantArt filed a flurry of motions aiming to have the case entirely dropped and dismissed with prejudice. The artists initially claimed copyright infringement, alleging that the AI companies unlawfully scraped their artworks to train AI models, resulting in the production of new, similar works without consent or compensation.

The defendants posit that their AI models generate entirely new products and do not replicate original artworks unless expressly instructed by users. DeviantArt, not an AI company per se but involved in offering AI-generating code, asserts that implementing AI models created by others does not equate to infringement. Stability AI contests that AI models are software code, not artwork, and disavows any intent to encourage infringement.

The legal battle intensifies as Midjourney, a popular AI image generator, faces allegations of utilizing artist names to train its model. Yet, its lawyers provide context to refute claims of false endorsement, highlighting that the names were sourced from public sources, not the artists themselves.