Getty declined to comment on the Delaware lawsuit. Representatives for Sustainability did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Reuters competes with Getty in the market for images for news editorial use.
London-based Stability AI last August released Stable Diffusion, an AI-based system for generating images from text input, and image generator DreamStudio. The company announced in October that it had raised more than $100 million in funding, valuing it at $1 billion.
Seattle-based Getty accused Stabilty of copying millions of its photos without a license and using them to train Stable Diffusion to generate more accurate illustrations based on user signals.
Getty said its photos are particularly valuable for AI training because of their image quality, diversity of subject matter, and detailed metadata.