Earlier this year, Getty Images filed a lawsuit against Stability AI for allegedly misusing over 12 million Getty photos to train its AI tool, Stable Diffusion. In response, Getty Images is now launching its own AI photo-generation tool called Generative AI. The tool is paywalled on the Getty.com website and will also be available through an API for Getty customers to integrate into other applications. Generative AI by Getty Images is trained on hundreds of millions of Getty Images and utilizes Nvidia’s model architecture, Edify. The tool is designed for commercial use, specifically for tasks such as finding generic images for marketing purposes.
Getty Images CEO, Craig Peters, highlighted their partnership with Nvidia, which provided them with unlimited access to graphics processing units for training the AI tool. This puts Getty in direct competition with rival Shutterstock, who partnered with OpenAI, and Adobe, which recently incorporated its generative AI engine, Firefly, into Photoshop. Getty’s entry into the AI photo generation space raises concerns about ethics and licensing. Peters maintains that Getty’s tool is different because they have legally cleared the rights to the photos used for training the models. Getty also assures customers that they are covered by the company’s royalty-free licensing agreements if a Getty contributor claims that an AI-generated image resembles their original artwork.
In summary, Getty Images is countering its earlier lawsuit against Stability AI by launching its own AI photo-generation tool called Generative AI. The tool, trained on hundreds of millions of Getty Images using Nvidia’s model architecture, Edify, is aimed at commercial customers. It allows users to prompt the tool to generate new images instead of using stock photos. Getty’s entry into the AI photo generation space puts them in competition with Shutterstock and Adobe. However, Getty emphasizes that their tool is different because they have legally cleared the rights to the photos used for training the model, providing indemnification to their customers. Concerns over the ethics and licensing surrounding the use of photographers’ images for AI training purposes are also raised.