In a legal battle that could have far-reaching implications for the use of AI in creative processes, a group of artists have launched a class action lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of copyright infringement involving their artworks.

Filed in a California Court, the lawsuit targets Google’s Imagen AI model, alleging that it was trained on the artists’ works without authorisation. The artists assert that the Imagen model, a text-to-image AI, constitutes an “infringing derivative work” as it contains reproductions of their images, which were allegedly used multiple times during training.

Key to the artists’ claims is the allegation that their works appeared in datasets used to develop Imagen, such as the LAION-400M corpus, an open-source collection of image URLs. They argue that since Google copied LAION-400M to train its AI systems, the company effectively reproduced their copyrighted works without proper authorisation.

The complaint alleges that Google engaged in “massive copyright infringement” through its Imagen model and demands damages for the alleged wrongful conduct. It claims that the at-issue images were not only utilised to train the Imagen model but were also incorporated into other Google AI systems, including Imagen 2 and systems like the Gemini foundation model.

The artists argue that by incorporating their works into its AI training data without permission, Google effectively created unauthorised copies of their art.

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The artists are demanding that Google destroy all reproduced copies of their works and cover their legal expenses. Represented by lawyers known for their involvement in the 2022 GitHub Copilot lawsuit, the artists have also taken legal action against other entities, including OpenAI, Meta, Nvidia, and Databricks, on behalf of book authors.

The lawsuit underscores the growing concerns surrounding the use of AI in creative endeavours and raises questions about the boundaries of intellectual property rights in the digital age. As the case unfolds, it could set precedents that shape the future of AI-driven creativity and copyright law.