A group of visual artists and illustrators is celebrating a federal judge’s decision this week to allow key parts of their class-action lawsuit against the makers of popular AI image generators to move forward. The artists allege that tech start-ups including Midjourney and Stability AI violated various laws by training their AI image tools on the artists’ work without consent. They say the tools encourage users to generate images that closely mimic a given artist’s style. In a 33-page ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Judge William Orrick dismissed some of the artists’ claims but left core parts of the suit unresolved. That means the case can proceed to the discovery phase, which could bring to light internal communications around how the companies developed their AI tools. Amid a flurry of AI copyright lawsuits, the case is now one of the furthest along the road to a showdown that could shape the industry’s future. “Up until now, these cases have been kind of stuck in the starting blocks,” said Blake E. Reid, a professor of internet and copyright law at the University of Colorado at Boulder. While it’s “way too early to tell” how the case will turn out, “this is a pretty big step on a very long path.” Orrick previously dismissed the bulk of a lawsuit brought by some of the same artists last year, prompting them to amend the suit and refile, adding new plaintiffs. The group, which includes artists Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, Karla Ortiz and fantasy landscape painter Greg Rutkowski, fared better this time.

Full report : AI companies lose bid to dismiss parts of visual artists’ copyright case.