Artists fight AI programmes that copy their styles

Visitors look at an image designed with AI by Berlin-based digital creator Julian van Dieken, inspired by Vermeer's painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring", at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. Photo: AFP

Artists outraged by artificial intelligence that copies in seconds the styles they have sacrificed years to develop are waging battle online and in court.

Fury erupted in the art community last year with the release of generative artificial intelligence (AI) programmes that can convincingly carry out commands such as drawing a dog like cartoonist Sarah Andersen would, or a nymph the way illustrator Karla Ortiz might do.