Expected on September 8, 2026, Andersen's jury trial against Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt, and Runway has been postponed to April 5, 2027 at the request of the plaintiffs.
Filed on January 13, 2023 in federal court for the Northern District of California, the action brought by illustrator Sarah Andersen and other artists was to be the first to put the central issue of copyright in the era of generative AI to a jury. The date of September 8, 2026 did not hold: Judge William Orrick granted most of a request for a postponement by the plaintiffs, shifting the schedule by about three months. The trial is now set for April 5, 2027 at 8:30 a.m., after a cumulative shift of about seven months due to the expansion of the investigation phase.
After the August 2024 order, there are three remaining claims: direct infringement against Stability AI and, in the amended complaint, against Midjourney and DeviantArt for the use of the works as training data; inducing infringement against Stability and Runway for the distribution of Stable Diffusion models to third parties; and Lanham Act claims for productions generated "in the style of" a particular named artist.
The issue goes beyond the parties: the thesis defended is that the weights of a distribution model incorporate copies of the works used to train it. The plaintiffs are counting on fourteen days of hearings.
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