Artist Sues AI Generators for Alleged Industrial-Level Identity Theft

Artist, Karla Ortiz, has sued two artificial intelligence firms for generating images that mimic her artistic style and thus constitutes a form of identity theft.

The artist, Karla Ortiz, is a Puerto Rican native, based in California, who currently works for video game giants such as Ubisoft, Marvel Studios, and Wizard.Rod Stewart, Mary J. Blige, Sarah McLachlan, and Rihanna are just a few of the icons she has produced campaigns for. 

Ortiz discovered Disco Diffusion a year ago, an AI generator, and began experimenting with it. Initially, she thought the program was an interesting experiment, but she soon realised it was using the work of many of her friends without their knowledge. Despite their requests, they did not have their work removed.

“It’s weird that this is happening, but whatever,” she told herself at the time.

But later the more powerful tool, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, was introduced in the market, which can create images “in the style of” any artist.

Ortiz said, “Somebody is able to mimic my work because a company let them,” She added, “It feels like some sort of industrial-level identity theft.” “It feels like someone has taken everything that you’ve worked for and allowed someone else to do whatever they want with it for profit.”

Before filing suit, Ortiz said she could request that Midjourney and Stable Diffusion create images “in the style of Karla Ortiz” and that the artificial intelligence platforms would follow suit.

The creator of Stable Diffusion, filed a motion to dismiss Ortiz’s case in April, claiming that Ortiz had failed “to identify a single allegedly infringing output image, let alone one that is substantially similar to any of their copyrighted works.” The same day, Midjourney filed a motion to dismiss Ortiz’s case.

Ortiz said, “For these models to generate the imagery that you see today, or anything for that matter, they have to be first trained on massive amounts of data, data that includes images and text,” she added, “That data, it includes everything,” continuing that, she said, “It includes people’s medical records, it includes people’s businesses, housing, in some cases people’s likenesses, and in our case as well, pretty much all of my entire artwork and specifically my fine art.”

Similarly, other artists have examined the methods used by tech companies to train their models and the extent to which data may be exploited for machine-learning purposes. Artists’ styles, whether they be a musician, illustrators, writers, or any other discipline, cannot be copied, according to Ortiz’s attorney.

Following her lawsuit, Ortiz stated that Midjourney and Stable Diffusion ceased using data from her artwork to create their images. However, she continues to have concerns.

“It generates imagery that is meant to look like yours and potentially even compete in your own market, utilising your own name and your own work,” Ortiz said. “You are competing with a digital copy of yourself, with a machine that does not sleep, does not rest and does not get paid.”

Goldman Sachs reported in March that artificial intelligence could affect up to 300 million jobs globally. As well, International Business Machine Corporation announced that it would cease looking for candidates that AI might be able to replace. According to IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, approximately 8,000 IBM jobs could be eliminated over the next five years.

Ortiz said, “It’s not going to be just painters and illustrators and voice actors and musicians,” she further added, “This is coming for almost every white-collar job you can imagine,” continued, “And again, it’s all done with our data,” she said. “It’s all done with our work.”

To the lawsuit filed by Ortiz, Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, haven’t responded yet.

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