As alleged in the complaint, Stable Diffusion - the artificial intelligence product used by Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney in their AI image products - was trained on billions of copyrighted images. These were downloaded and used without compensation or consent from the artists.

In the eyes of the team lead by Matthew Butterick, the foreseeable result of this behavior will result in the replacement of art if Stable Diffusion and similar products are allowed to continue to operate as they do now.

"AI needs to be fair and ethical for everyone," said lawyer/programmer Matthew Butterick. "But Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt are appropriating the work of thousands of artists with no consent, no credit, and no compensation".