Getty Images sues Stability AI for 'unlawful copying'

US stock image firm, Getty Images, has started the process of filing a lawsuit against tech firm, Stability AI, for unlawfully copying and processing millions of images to be used in an artificial intelligence (AI) art tool, according to a release published on Getty Images’ website.

Getty Images is a platform that supplies stock and news photos. In a statement on its website, Getty Images confirmed that this week it commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London against Stability AI. It said that Stability AI infringed intellectual property rights including copyright in content owned or represented by Getty Images.

“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,” it said.

Getty Images added that it believes artificial intelligence has the potential to stimulate creative endeavors. “Accordingly, Getty Images provided licenses to leading technology innovators for purposes related to training artificial intelligence systems in a manner that respects personal and intellectual property rights,” it said. However, Getty Images claims that stability AI did not seek any such license from Getty Images and instead, “chose to ignore viable licensing options and long‑standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand‑alone commercial interests”.

Meanwhile, Getty Images competitor, Shuttershock has decided to unveil its action plan to launch its AI-generated content capabilities in a manner that is responsible and transparent for its customers and contributors. In expanding its partnership with OpenAI, launching a fund to compensate artists for their contributions, and focusing its R&D machine on gathering and publishing insights related to AI-generated content, Shutterstock aims to position itself at the forefront of emerging technology.

This agreement further deepens the strategic partnership between Shutterstock and OpenAI, which began in 2021. "The data we licensed from Shutterstock was critical to the training of DALL-E,” said Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO. “We’re excited for Shutterstock to offer DALL-E images to its customers as one of the first deployments through our API, and we look forward to future collaborations as artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of artists’ creative workflows.”

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