The Getty Images Lawsuit vs. Stability AI: What It Means for IP in AI Training
What happened?
Recently, Getty Images sued Stability AI in US federal court, alleging that they improperly, and without permission, utilized their protected intellectual property to train their commercial AI products. This lawsuit raises important legal questions related to the training of AI, and has far reaching implications for brand owners.
Challenges for IP in AI Training
AI training often involves third-party content, which raises legal and ethical questions:
Rapid Advancement: Technological advancements are rapidly raising novel legal issues. How these new questions are addressed by legal systems globally will impact how the technology evolves.
Legal Uncertainty: Fair use, a likely defense in many of the forthcoming AI training cases, is a complex doctrine. It is far from certain how the defense will be treated by courts. Its application or denial will have a critical impact in how present and future AI’s are trained.
Ethical Concerns: Unauthorized use of protected intellectual property raises ethical concerns. Is it acceptable for those training AI systems to utilize the protected material of others, without permission or compensation? If allowed, would this disincentivize the creation of new IP works?
Why we care?
Spaceport serves to make IP of all kinds safely licensable for both the IP owner and the licensee. We’ll continue to track how companies and courts are addressing the IP rights of the data going into and coming out of increasingly advanced AI technology.
Conclusions
The Getty Images lawsuit brings attention to IP rights in AI training and how it unfolds will greatly influence how IP owners need to manage their business.
*This blog post was drafted by ChatGPT-4, edited only to format the text for easier reading.
