Shutterstock has integrated OpenAI’s text-to-image generator, DALL-E, into its platform. The partnership was announced last October and the AI image generator is now live and available to all Shutterstock customers worldwide.
Shutterstock Launches AI Image Generator
Creative Flow Addition
The image synthesizer tool is the latest addition to Creative Flow, Shutterstock’s creative toolkit. The toolkit helps users design their own stock photos that are ready for licensing.
Transformative for Storytelling
According to Paul Hennessy, CEO of Shutterstock,
“Our easy-to-use generative platform will transform the way people tell their stories.”
The platform eliminates the need for design expertise or a creative team to create exceptional work.
Ethical Approach
Shutterstock’s tools are built on an ethical approach and a diverse library of assets. The company ensures that the artists whose works contributed to the development of these models are recognized and rewarded.
Strategic Partnerships
Shutterstock has developed strategic partnerships with key players in the industry, including OpenAI, Meta, and LG AI Research, to fuel their generative AI research efforts. With the integration of DALL-E, Shutterstock can bring responsibly-produced generative AI capabilities to its customers.
AI Image Controversy
AI image generators are trained on large datasets containing millions of images created by photographers and artists. The use of these images without consent has caused controversy in the industry.
Ethically Created Visuals
Shutterstock claims that their AI images are “ethically created visuals” and addresses some of the concerns surrounding the technology.
The company has stated that its AI image generator is powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E and LG’s EXAONE technology, both of which were trained using datasets licensed from Shutterstock.
Shutterstock has also developed a revenue share model where contributors whose content was used to train the model will receive a share of the earnings from datasets and downloads of all AI-generated content produced on the platform.
Lawsuits in the Industry
DALL-E’s competitor, Stable Diffusion, owned by Stability AI, has been hit with two lawsuits. A class-action lawsuit by a group of artists and a lawsuit by Getty Images claiming the company has copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright.
Dataset Transparency
While stability AI’s training dataset LAION is publicly available, OpenAI has not revealed what DALL-E is trained on. However, Shutterstock has stated that their AI image generator was trained on datasets licensed by the company.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Shutterstock has launched an AI image generator on its platform using DALL-E’s technology from OpenAI. The company has addressed concerns about the ethical use of images by describing their AI images as “ethically created visuals.”
The AI image generator industry has faced controversy, with competitor stability AI facing lawsuits from artists and Getty Images. Despite this, Shutterstock remains committed to transparency and ethical use of images in their AI image generator.
