I’ve been really hesitant to write about AI and art. I have very strong feelings about this technology, and I realize that this probably puts me firmly into the old curmudgeon column, waving my fist at the passing AI clouds. I just read the Gizmodo article about Getty Images filing a lawsuit against Stability AI, the company responsible for Stability Diffusion, the AI model that steals art for its models.
I am specifically using the word “steals” and not “trains” for a reason. These AI engines scrape and steal not just images, but also the tagging and the metadata that Getty attaches to its images. Stability AI did not license these images or ask for permission to use them -- and it does not do that for the millions upon millions of images that it steals. And, after stealing these images, they “transform” those images into results that others can then sell in direct competition with the original stolen images.
Having searched for stock images for presentations, I know how valuable these tags and metadata are in helping to find the correct image. It takes work to categorize these images appropriately, and these AI companies are stealing that work in order to “train” its technology to respond better to prompts. In my mind, this is theft, pure and simple. If there was no original art for the AI engines to use, they would simply not have a product.
I’m not usually one to cheer for soulless corporations, and Getty makes a ton of money off of the work of individual photographers who should be getting a whole lot more for their artistry and efforts. However, they are a big enough company to make a difference I hope. At the very least, these AI companies should have to license and pay to use the images that they are currently using, just as musicians have to pay to sample music created by other artists.
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