Shutterstock has announced its plans to expand its partnership with OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research lab, to provide training data for OpenAI’s AI models. Under the agreement, OpenAI will have access to Shutterstock’s vast collection of images, videos, music, and associated metadata for the next six years. In return, Shutterstock will gain priority access to OpenAI’s latest technology and new editing capabilities, allowing its customers to transform images from Shutterstock’s stock content library.
The expanded partnership will also see OpenAI and Shutterstock working together to bring generative AI capabilities to mobile users through Giphy, the popular GIF library that Shutterstock recently acquired from Meta. This move reinforces Shutterstock’s commitment to driving AI tech innovation and positions the company as the go-to partner for industry leaders in generative AI.
The relationship between stock content galleries and generative AI startups has been fraught with tension in the past. Generative AI, particularly in the realm of generative art AI, poses a potential threat to stock galleries as it has the ability to create highly customizable stock images on the fly. Artists and photographers who contribute their work to these galleries have expressed concerns about generative AI startups profiting from their work without giving proper credit or compensation.
Getty Images, a leading stock image gallery, filed a lawsuit against Stability AI earlier this year for scraping its content to train its AI art tool, Stable Diffusion. Similar allegations of copyright violations have been made by a group of artists against Stability AI and Midjourney, another AI art creation platform. While some experts argue that training models with public images, even copyrighted ones, falls under fair use doctrine in the US, this matter remains unresolved.
In contrast to Getty Images, Shutterstock has embraced generative AI and partnered with OpenAI to develop an image creator powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E 2. The collaboration between Shutterstock and OpenAI dates back to 2021, but the image creator was launched only in late 2022. Additionally, Shutterstock has entered into licensing agreements with Nvidia, Meta, LG, and other companies to create generative AI models and tools across 3D models, images, and text.
To address concerns from artists on its platform, Shutterstock has established a contributor fund that compensates artists for their contributions to training Shutterstock’s generative AI. These artists also receive ongoing royalties tied to licensing newly-generated assets.
By expanding its deal with OpenAI and embracing generative AI, Shutterstock is positioning itself as a leader in AI tech innovation. The partnership allows Shutterstock to leverage OpenAI’s advanced technology while providing OpenAI access to its vast data collection. This collaboration marks an important milestone in the development of generative AI and its impact on the stock content industry.
