AI challenge debated: Andersen triumphs over Stability AI, potentially a milestone for visual artists in copyright disputes
In a significant development, the class-action copyright infringement lawsuit filed by artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz against Stability AI has gained new momentum. The lawsuit, led by lawyer Matthew Butterick, was filed in January 2023 for copyright and trademark infringement.
The focus of the lawsuit is the use of legally protected works by Stable Diffusion, a tool that generates hyper-realistic images from a prompt. The tool, a result of the collaboration between Midjourney and Stability AI, may have been trained from a database of millions of images, potentially containing protected content.
Judge Orrick has ordered the involved companies to provide information on the data used to make their AI functional and to specify if protected images were included in the training program, if yes, in what quantity and manner. This development allows the artists to begin the discovery phase and put the case on the path to trial. The case had been suspended for over 18 months prior to this development.
The programming of the tool may have potentially facilitated copyright infringement. Generative AI, according to lawyer Matthew Butterick, not only poses a threat to the economic health of artists, but also encroaches on their intellectual and emotional habitat, and their personality.
This case centers on several key claims:
- The artists argue that purchasers can now generate new images mimicking the artists’ styles through Stable Diffusion without paying or licensing from the original artists, which directly harms their market by siphoning commissions.
- The lawsuit is part of a broader wave of litigation addressing whether AI companies infringe copyright when training models on copyrighted works, and whether AI-generated images in an artist’s style constitute unfair competition or infringement.
- Other related legal disputes, such as Getty Images v. Stability AI, are focusing on secondary copyright infringement, specifically whether AI models that store or reproduce copyrighted works constitute infringing “articles” under copyright law.
- Stability AI and similar defendants argue their AI training methods are transformative, akin to how human artists learn by studying existing works.
As of July-August 2025 reports, no start of the trial for Andersen, McKernan, and Ortiz’s case has been noted. The broader legal environment includes ongoing cases and mixed rulings in different jurisdictions that may influence the outcome, but the class-action suit itself is still in pre-trial phases or early litigation at this time.
The article is published by The Hollywood Reporter.
The use of Stable Diffusion, an AI tool designed to generate hyper-realistic images, may have infringed on copyrights and trademarks of artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz, as it potentially contains protected content from a database of millions of images. The programming of this technology, fostered by the collaboration between Midjourney and Stability AI, raises concerns about encroachment on the intellectual and emotional habitat, and the potential harm to the economic health of artists.
