According to foreign media reports,AI Image GeneratorMidjourneyLast week, Midjourney quietly revised its terms of service to replace its previous humorous language with more formal lawyer language, a change seen as a sign that it is confident it can win a potential copyright lawsuit against creators.
Source Note: The image is generated by AI, and the image is authorized by Midjourney
AsGenerative AI ModelsMidjourney uses a large number of existing images and texts for training, including a large number of copyrighted works. The company has always argued that according to the principle of "fair use", it is allowed to use copyrighted works to train models if they are used for creative secondary creation.
However, some artists and content creators disagree, especially since studies have shown that these models can "give back" training data. To defuse the controversy, some AI companies have taken proactive actions, such as signing contracts with creators and providing training data opt-outs. But Midjourney did not do so. Instead, it openly used the work of others and listed a list of thousands of artists, claiming that their work may have been used to train the model.
Now, Midjourney's change of tone makes people feel that the company is confident of winning the copyright lawsuit in court. If the court determines that "fair use" does apply to AI companies like Midjourney, it can continue to "unscrupulously" use existing works to train models.
Midjourney is currently growing rapidly, reportedly reaching approximately $200 million in revenue without a penny of outside investment. However, lawyers are expensive. If fair use is ruled not to apply in Midjourney's case, the company will suffer overnight.