ArtDependence | Hergé, Magritte and Vandersteen amongst 16000 Names Midjourney uses to Train its AI

Friday, January 5, 2024

An exposed database lists up to 16,000 artists that the company has allegedly used to train its art-generation tools, from Frida Kahlo, to Yayoi Kusama, Banksy, Magritte, Willy Vandertseen, Hergé and Andy Warhol

A spreadsheet submitted as evidence in a copyright lawsuit against Midjourney allegedly lists thousands of artists whose images the startup's AI picture generator "can successfully mimic or imitate."

Last weekend, though, the scale of the issue became even more apparent, thanks to the release of a database that allegedly contains a list of artists used to train Midjourney, one of the leading AI art generators of the moment.

The database comes in the form of a Google Sheets spreadsheet, listing various time periods, styles, genres, movements, mediums, techniques and names that were used to train the program.

The spreadsheet is part of a case that argues Midjourney unlawfully profits from creators' intellectual property by allowing its text-to-image tool to specifically use their work without permission.

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Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.

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