WEBVTT

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- If you've been using AI art generators

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like Stable Diffusion long enough,

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you might have noticed a few pictures

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containing a disturbed version
of the Getty Images logo.

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Uncanny, right?

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That's because Stable
Diffusion was trained

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on an enormous data set of images

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scraped from all parts of the internet,

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including many copyrighted images.

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Now the massive stock photo
powerhouse Getty Images

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is coming after the company
that made Stable Diffusion.

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This past week, Getty hit
the UK company Stability AI

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with a pretty massive lawsuit.

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Getty Images claims that
the AI art generator

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stole over 12 million licensed images

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that are protected under copyright.

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These produced images are "highly similar"

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and are "derivative" of Getty's photos,

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according to the lawsuit.

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Getty has long been antagonistic
to the whole AI thing.

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The company banned any AI-generated images

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from its stock photo sites last year.

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They also have more legal
action against Stability AI

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cooking over in the UK.

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But the lawsuit could have

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some pretty wide-ranging implications

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for the entire AI industry.

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Getty's whole watermark
thing is a sticking point,

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and the company claimed Stable Diffusion

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is hurting its trademark with its awkward

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and sometimes disturbing images

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accompanied by the
distorted "Grebbteedy" logo.

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Getty would like Stability AI to pay up

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to $150,000 for every trademark violation,

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which could be a huge chunk of change

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if they could prove copyright violations

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on every single one of that
supposed 12 million images.

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Getty isn't the first to sue the makers

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of AI art generators.

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Three artists have already
proposed a class action suit

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against the likes of
Midjourny, DeviantArt,

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as well as Stability AI,

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also saying that AI is
effectively ending the careers

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of artists by stealing and
reproducing their styles,

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all for free.

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It's hard to see where this might end,

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but considering how big AI has gotten

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and how now big companies
like Google and Microsoft

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plan to use AI in their search browsers,

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one can expect there'll
only be more such lawsuits

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in the future.

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