Getty Images Launches AI-Powered Image Generator
Getty Images Holdings Inc., a prominent photography company, is set to launch an artificial intelligence tool that will produce images using its extensive content library. This move aims to address the copyright and ownership issues that have been a challenge for AI technology thus far.
Getty, which owns the rights to millions of photos, previously sued Stability AI, the company that popularized the Stable Diffusion image generator, for unauthorized use of images. Getty’s new product, developed with chipmaker Nvidia Inc, is trained on Getty’s own data and aims to avoid difficult legal issues in part by limiting the images that use the generator’s power.
The new tool leverages Getty’s bank of creative images, but not its news image collection, as part of an effort to prevent the creation of deep fakes, CEO Craig Peters said. The new image generator doesn’t allow users to include trademarked material or assets they don’t own — so there’s no way to create something like the viral Pope Francis wearing a Balenciaga puffer jacket photo, Peters said.
In order for Getty to serve businesses that want to create ads and other content, customers can add their own information or branding. Content generated through the product, which generates images based on text prompts, is not added back to Getty’s own libraries.
AI-generated images receive Getty’s standard content license and indemnification for lawsuits. The company also said it plans to compensate artists and assistants whose work was used to train the AI model.
The growing popularity of text-to-image AI — such as OpenAI’s Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney service — has raised questions about whether these tools profit from the work of artists, photographers, and designers without permission or compensation. In addition to Getty’s lawsuit against Stability AI, several artists have also sued services such as Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.
Getty will continue to invest in legal action against Stability AI in the US and UK, Peters said.
Uncertainty about the technology means companies that want to use AI software to create new images for things like ad campaigns or social media posts fear they could face legal threats and fines, said Peters, who noted that this has been repeatedly raised by Getty clients. concern.
“There are real risks here,” he said. “Customers want to use generative AI, but they don’t want to run into this minefield of, ‘We don’t even know if we own this thing.'”
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that it would defend buyers of its AI products from copyright infringement lawsuits and pay related fines or settlements.
The new Getty service shows that AI companies who say they can’t develop technology while respecting intellectual property rights are not being truthful, Peters said. “It basically undercuts one of the arguments of those who put these generative models on the market without compensation,” he said.
