It's important to acknowledge that ALL of these companies knew this was the case from the very beginning. It was just too profitable an endeavor for them to do anything other than proceed with the data sets, knowing full well they contained a) millions (or hundreds of millions) of copyrighted images, b) millions (or hundreds of millions) of personal photos, c) thousands (or tens of thousands) of images containing child sexual abuse material, and all manner of other inappropriate material (private medical records, beheading videos, etc. etc. etc.) - and just not disclose the contents to the public.

This news should be a surprise to absolutely no one, and a wake up call to all those who bend over backward on a daily basis trying to justify the tech.

Again, if you use it, you are 100% complicit. There is no way around this.

As of today, LAION has pulled their data sets, and I believe a criminal investigation in Germany is underway. I'm confused as to how and why Midjourney is still promoting their new version release, but I would guess this only increases their own criminal culpability (which is awesome).

Personally, I am very hopeful that a bunch of people go to prison over this, and that end users as a whole snap out of their shitty dystopian daydreams as a result of the subsequent fallout.