San Francisco-based artist and illustrator Karla Ortiz has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence generators for “scraping” her work from the internet and using it to train image bots, calling it “industrial-level identity theft.”

(Video Credit: Eagle News)

She’s not alone either. A number of other artists are suing as well.

Ortiz contends that AI-generated images that mimic an artist’s style are a type of identity theft. She told Fox News it endangers the livelihood of artists and other creators by using their own work to compete against them.

Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are two examples of AI platforms that use text and images derived from the internet and other sources to train machines to create images for consumers who then potentially copyright the work which was taken from other artists. Ortiz filed her lawsuit against the platforms in January for copyright infringement and the right of publicity violations.

“Somebody is able to mimic my work because a company let them,” Ortiz said during the interview. “It feels like some sort of industrial-level identity theft.”

2/2 Economists at Goldman Sachs predict a potential loss of 300 million full time jobs. More on that study below.

Btw the projection on that tweet is wild. A vested interest, at the forefront of impactful tech, unwilling to recognize the consequences of their own field. Fun https://t.co/JaWOqaA7bX

— Karla Ortiz (@kortizart) May 8, 2023

“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,” she contended.

Before she filed the suit, Ortiz says she was able to ask Midjourney and Stable Diffusion to create imagery “in the style of Karla Ortiz” and the AI platforms would gladly do so. Since the suit has been filed, the platforms have allegedly stopped using her art.

Stability AI, Stable Diffusion’s creator, attempted to stop Ortiz’s suit by filing a motion in April claiming that she failed “to identify a single allegedly infringing output image, let alone one that is substantially similar to any of their copyrighted works.” Midjourney filed a similar motion the same day indicating the two firms are working together on the issue.

So regarding AI:⁰ please remember that the work submitted to AI to teach it to mimic our styles was very often submitted without the consent of the artist. Had I been asked, I wouldn't have allowed developers to take or use my work for that purpose.

— Sarah Andersen (@SarahCAndersen) October 21, 2022

“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 image and text,” Ortiz explained to Fox News. “That data, it includes everything.”

“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,” she added.

Other artists are incensed by AI’s encroachment on their work as well. However, an attorney told Fox News in April that artists, including musicians, illustrators, and writers, can’t copyright their style.

AI art is theft.

It isn’t creative, it’s literally regurgitating the work of thousands of living and working human artists like me. It exists to replace the very creatives whose work was stolen to create the “non profit” database, as the output is only as good as the input.

— Kelly McKernan 🔜 C2E2 I-11 (@Kelly_McKernan) May 8, 2023

Despite the platforms ostensibly no longer using her artwork, Ortiz is still concerned.

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

It is believed that artificial intelligence could impact up to 300 million jobs worldwide according to a March report from Goldman Sachs. IBM is already putting on hold looking for candidates that AI can replace. CEO Arvind Krishna is predicting that up to 30% of non-customer-facing roles, which is nearly 8,000 jobs, could be eliminated in the next five years.

“It’s not going to be just painters and illustrators and voice actors and musicians,” Ortiz told Fox News concerning AI. “This is coming for almost every white-collar job you can imagine.”

“And again, it’s all done with our data,” she pointed out. “It’s all done with our work.”

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