Shutterstock Embraces AI Image Licensing Deals

Five years after the release of OpenAI’s Dall-E and the ensuing controversy over AI-generated images, stock image providers such as Shutterstock have found licensing agreements to be a way to stay viable in the competitive AI market.At the start of generative AI, Shutterstock and other image providers, such as Getty Images, were forced to respond as the industry underwent a transition in which many AI models were trained on publicly available data scraped from across the web. For Getty Images, the response was to sue an image model provider, Stability AI, while also creating its own generative AI product, Generative AI by Getty Images.Meanwhile, Shutterstock opted to sign multiple data licensing agreements with OpenAI, Meta and others.Daniel Mandell, senior vice president of data licensing and AI at Shutterstock, said the stock image provider views licensing agreements positively.“We are thinking about data licensing in that two-prong approach, which is model training and then for inference purposes,” Mandell said on the Targeting AI podcast from AI Business.Related:Prompt: Why Better AI Models Aren't EnoughHe added that while partnerships might lead to some competition from the AI technology vendors Shutterstock partners with, many users are not just looking for generated images.“I don’t know if it’s necessarily replacing the value of stock content,” Mandell said, adding that users want content that’s going to perform best.“Customers are moving more toward performance-based content than just having 55,000 pictures of cardinals and nests,” referring to bird photos.“What generative AI is doing is creating a hybrid approach where it gives users more of an ability to create different versions that may be relevant to different customer types,” he continued. “I don’t think that’s something you could have done in the past.”About the AuthorsNews Writer, AI BusinessEsther Shittu has covered AI technologies and industry trends since 2021. As co-host of the Targeting AI podcast, she talks with experts, thought leaders and practitioners exploring critical AI developments. Before AI Business, she wrote for SearchEnterpriseAI, the New York Daily News, Bklyner and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. When she's not diving deep into the world of AI, she spends her time on passion projects and raising her three daughters.Senior News Director, AI BusinessShaun Sutner, a journalist with more than 25 years of daily newspaper experience and 12 years at Informa TechTarget as an editor and writer, directs news coverage for AI Business. He was previously a senior news and features writer covering health IT and HR software at TechTarget and a senior news director overseeing coverage of AI, business analytics, data management and government tech regulation.Sutner's newspaper career included investigative reporting and covering the Massachusetts State House and politics for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. He has written about snow sports as a T&G columnist and correspondent for 21 years. Sutner's interests also include tennis, standup paddleboarding, cooking and popular music.