Database of Artists Used to Train AI Leaks to the Public

A spreadsheet titled "Midjourney Style List," listing more than 16,000 artists' names allegedly used to train Midjourney's AI image generator, has circulated online and drawn criticism on social media. The list includes living artists such as Banksy, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, and KAWS, along with a six-year-old who made a drawing for a hospital fundraiser in 2021. Court documents state that Midjourney CEO David Holz first posted the list to a Discord server in February 2022 and described how the names could be used as text prompts. Screenshots posted by Riot Games artist Jon Lam on December 31 show developers saying the database included at least 4,700 artists, drawn from Wikipedia and Magic: The Gathering.