Getty Images has filed a significant lawsuit against Stability AI, a company specializing in artificial intelligence, at London's High Court. The case, which began on June 9, 2025, centers around allegations that Stability AI breached Getty's copyright by using millions of its images to train its Stable Diffusion system without permission.
Stable Diffusion is an AI model that generates images from text inputs, and Getty claims that Stability AI unlawfully scraped these images from its websites to develop its AI system. Stability AI denies any infringement, arguing that the dispute is about technological innovation and freedom of ideas.
The outcome of this lawsuit could have far-reaching implications for the creative industry and AI development. Lawyers expect the ruling to inform government policy on copyright protections related to AI, and a victory for Getty Images could lead to further lawsuits against Stability AI and other developers.
The case is part of a larger trend of lawsuits over AI's use of copyrighted material for training models, with creative industries grappling with the legal and ethical implications of AI models that can produce work based on existing material. As the case unfolds, it will be closely watched by industry stakeholders and policymakers alike.
