'Generative AI by iStock' lets users create images without copyright-infringement worries
AI-generated images courtesy of iStock.
Getty just announced its artificial intelligence-powered image generator called Generative AI by iStock that creates commercially safe images licensed to use in marketing materials, social media posts, online ads, and more.
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The biggest concern with using AI-generated images is the risk of copyright infringement, as the AI models behind image generators like OpenAI's DALL-E 3 are trained on vast amounts of images available online, regardless of copyright status. This can result in the generation of images that could resemble copyrighted art created by someone else and are invariably created with influence from other people's work.
This copyright concern is why different companies, like Adobe and now Getty, are instead creating AI image generators trained on their libraries of licensed images, providing users the same protection they would get when using images from the Adobe or Getty library.
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"Using AI, creatives can produce anything they can imagine. Our own VisualGPS research shows that 42% of SMBs and SMEs are already using AI‑generated content to support their marketing efforts," said Grant Farhall, iStock's Chief Product Officer. "Our AI Generator is easy to use, produces relevant and high‑quality visuals, and is backed by our legal protection so customers can now safely use this new service, in combination with our amazing pre‑shot library, to elevate their work."
iStock's AI image generator is powered by Picasso from NVIDIA. This is a foundry or environment with several visual foundational models for custom image and video generation, and the model used for Generative AI by iStock is trained on proprietary data from Getty Images' libraries.
iStock users can pay $15 for every 100 AI generations. One generation is each time a user enters a prompt to generate an image. Each generation delivers four AI-generated images to choose from, and the users can choose to download one or all four.
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"Our main goal with Generative AI by iStock is to provide customers with an easy and affordable option to use AI in their creative process, without fear that something that is legally protected has snuck into the dataset and could end up in their work," Farhall explained.
The images created using Generative AI by iStock are not added back to the iStock creative library for others to download. They are backed by iStock's legal indemnification of up to $10,000.