If you find a photo in an article, it probably came from Shutterstock, the largest source of online stock images. Recently, it opened access to AI-generated pictures.
The new feature came after the company partnered with OpenAI, the creator of the popular AI image creator DALL-E.
It is available to all users with paid Shutterstock subscriptions in “every language the site offers.” Also, they do not have to worry about potential intellectual property issues.
How do Shutterstock AI images work?
Photo Credit: arstechnica.com
The current version of the website provides four images based on your search queries. Scroll down, and you will see a suggestion to get “More AI-generated images from the Shutterstock library.”
Click that message, and the website will produce Shutterstock AI pictures according to your request.
Note that relying on AI-generated images could get you into legal trouble. Some AI tools create a mish-mash of content from artists and brands without permission.
As a result, famous AI photo generators like Stable Diffusion have received numerous lawsuits for copyright infringement.
Furthermore, Shutterstock’s competitors have been reluctant to adopt AI image generation.
For example, Getty Images is another prominent name in the stock photo industry, but it announced that it would not adopt AI soon.
It also banned AI-generated pictures on its platform. CEO Craig Peters told The Verge, “I think that’s dangerous.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s responsible, [and] I think it could be illegal.” Do Shutterstock AI pictures avoid these issues?
The company tries to stand out from the competition by limiting its AI to “datasets licensed from Shutterstock.”
In other words, the tool would only “take inspiration” from images owned by the stock photo firm. Also, it would allegedly compensate artists for the images it uses for AI-generated content.
Shutterstock would deliver payments through a “Contributor Fund.” It scheduled the distribution of the first payout in December 2022.
According to Gizmodo, we cannot confirm how many contributors received payments from the Shutterstock AI program.
Finally, the company included a specific guideline for AI photos:
“You must not use the generated image to infringe, misappropriate, or violate the intellectual property or other rights of any third party, to generate spam, false, misleading, deceptive, harmful, or violent imagery.”
Conclusion
A recent upgrade to Shutterstock enables paid users to generate AI images. However, they must ensure they do not use Shutterstock AI images with trademarked material or a celebrity’s likeness.
Otherwise, they would likely face legal action, not the image website. Regardless, the use of AI-generated content will continue to expand worldwide.
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