A UK court has determined that Getty Images‘ copyright dispute with Stability AI, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) startup, can proceed to trial. In dismissing Stable Diffusion’s counter-claims, the court found substance in Getty’s claim that its copyright assets were utilized to train the company’s AI models. Getty Images has filed a lawsuit against Stability AI, a competitor to the popular OpenAI, for using its copyrighted assets. Stability, according to the US stock picture supplier, scraped millions of its photographs online to train its image-generating technology, Stable Diffusion.
Stability AI, which is worth $1 billion (£790 million), requested to have Getty Images’ complaint dismissed
Stability AI, which is worth $1 billion (£790 million), requested to have Getty Images’ complaint dismissed. It claimed that its models were mostly trained in Munich — by a team from Munich University — rather than in the United Kingdom. This meant that the matter should not be heard in a British court, according to the ruling. “I am confident that no Stability employee based in the UK has ever worked on developing or training Stable Diffusion,” Stability CEO Emad Mostaque stated, according to the Telegraph. According to the Telegraph, Justice Joanna Smith questioned Stability AI’s assertions, claiming that evidence presented by Montague was “inaccurate or incomplete.”
“These documents raise the spectre that Mr Mostaque’s evidence is either inaccurate or incomplete; at the very least they suggest a conflict of evidence.” “The apparent inconsistencies between Mr Mostaque’s evidence and other available evidence casts doubt over the credibility of his statements generally,” read Judge Smith’s judgement.
Smith stated that prior comments made by the CEO of Stability during media appearances and YouTube interviews merit additional examination. She stated that a full trial is required due to “unanswered questions” and that “disclosure may establish that Mr Mostaque’s evidence is unimpeachable.” Mostaque stated in a 2022 interview that the corporation “fast-tracked” Ukrainian and Russian developers’ immigration applications for them to migrate to the UK. Accusing Getty Images of “kicking up dust”, Stability AI stated that the developers may have been engaged in other projects. It went on to say that the proof supplied by the stock image provider was “speculative.”