Kelly McKernan explained

Kelly McKernan
Birth Date:	1986

Kelly McKernan (born 1986) is an American artist based in Nashville, Tennessee.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Early life and education

McKernan joined DeviantArt as a high school student in 2002.^[4] In 2009, they earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Kennesaw State University.^[5]

Career and activism

McKernan teaches at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville.

On January 13, 2023, McKernan, Sarah Andersen, and Karla Ortiz filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt, claiming that the generative artificial intelligence tools used by the companies have infringed the rights of millions of artists by training on five billion images scraped from the web, without the consent of the original artists.^{[6] [7] [8]} On July 19, Judge William Orrick III stated he would dismiss most of the case, requesting they elaborate on issues and "provide more facts".^[9]

Honors and recognition

In 2023, Time Magazine named McKernan to its list of Most Influential People in AI.^[10]

Personal life

McKernan is nonbinary, and goes by they/them pronouns. They are a single mother.

Notes and References

1. Web site: McKernan . Kelly . About . Kelly McKernan . October 3, 2023.
2. News: Dixit . Pranav . Meet The Three Artists Behind A Landmark Lawsuit Against AI Art Generators . January 20, 2023 . . January 20, 2023.
3. Web site: August 31, 2023 . Noveck . Jocelyn . O'Brien. Matt . Visual artists fight back against AI companies for repurposing their work . September 13, 2023 . . en.
4. News: Ta . Amy . July 10, 2023 . What happens when AI creates art that looks like your work? . September 13, 2023 . . en.
5. Web site: Kelly McKernan . . October 3, 2023.
6. Web site: AI art tools Stable Diffusion and Midjourney targeted with copyright lawsuit . James . Vincent . January 16, 2023 . The Verge .
7. News: Bearne . Suzanne . July 31, 2023 . New AI systems collide with copyright law . September 13, 2023 . . en-GB.
8. Chayka . Kyle . February 10, 2023 . Is A.I. Art Stealing from Artists? . en-US . The New Yorker . September 13, 2023 . 0028-792X.
9. News: Brittain . Blake . US judge finds flaws in artists' lawsuit against AI companies . . July 19, 2023.
10. Chow . Andrew R. . September 7, 2023 . TIME100 AI 2023: Kelly McKernan . September 13, 2023 . Time . en.