British photographers call for unity in class action lawsuit against image generation AIs ``Stable Diffusion'' and ``Midjourney''

American painters have filed a lawsuit against image generation AI 'Stable Diffusion' and 'Midjourney' for the unauthorized use of their works for training image generation AI, alleging copyright infringement and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). A class action lawsuit filed by the British art world is calling for the British art world to unite. In some cases, it has been suggested that a class action lawsuit of its own may be brought in the UK.

Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin among thousands of British artists used to train AI software, Midjourney | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

It has been pointed out that image generation AI contains many images protected by copyright in the dataset used as the learning source, and in the case of Midjourney, famous artists such as Walt Disney, Yayoi Kusama, and Frida Kahlo are included. It is known that he created a list of a total of 16,000 artists, ranging in age from 6 years old to 6 years old, and had them actively learn from them.

Under these circumstances, 10 artists filed a class action lawsuit against Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and the art community DeviantArt, which created a dataset of their submitted works.

The plaintiffs are cartoonist Sarah Andersen , illustrator Kelly McKernan , visual artist Carla Ortiz , concept artist and illustrator Hawke Southworth , and concept artist and illustrator Grzegorz Rutkowski. , illustrator Gregory Manchez , who works on illustrations for 'National Geographic,' illustrator Gerald Blom , known for his gothic fantasy style, photographer Zhang Jing-na , and storyboard artist Julia. Mr. Kay , cartoonist Adam Ellis . The focus is on artists active in the United States.

Matthew Butterick, the lawyer in charge of this class action lawsuit, said he is also in contact with British artists.

'What we need to do is come together,' said Tim Flack , a British photographer known for his animal photography and president of the Society of Photographers, whose name was included in Midjourney's list of artists. I think the publication of the list will be a great opportunity for artists to come together and work together.Personally, I think it's okay to file a class action lawsuit.''

A survey of 1,000 artists and agents by the UK's Design Artists Copyright Society (DACS) found that 22% said their work was used for training, and 89% said their work was used for training. The response was that ``the government should regulate generated AI to protect the creative industry.''

DACS's Reema Serhi said the survey was conducted before Midjourney's artist listing issue was discovered, and that there would have been an even stronger reaction if it had been.

On the other hand, there are people who have different opinions. Illustrator Chris Foss is known for his illustrations for science fiction novels, including Isaac Asimov's ``Foundation'' trilogy, and the sex manual ``The Joy of Sex.'' Because of his long career, he is an artist who is often used for AI training, but because he does not use a PC, he did not know that image generation AI was creating imitation works.

Mr. Foss, who learned about the image generation AI through this incident, looked at the output image and said, ``If you are familiar with my work, you probably know that the ``Chris Foss-style image'' was created by me.'' If it doesn't, you'll notice right away, because there's a certain flatness to it and a lack of depth.'' Mr. Foss is planning an exhibition in the second half of 2024, and says that he will have to create about 80 works. ``We have to think about various things such as lighting and composition.However, image generation AI If I play around with the images generated by them, I feel like I can draw a good picture. They solve all my problems for me,' he said, showing his desire to use AI as a springboard to create new works. It means.