Stock image company Shutterstock announced on Tuesday it is expanding its partnership with the artificial intelligence research firm OpenAI to bring AI-generated images to clients, while also paying artists.
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Known for its founders such as Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, OpenAI developed the DALL-E machine learning model which lets users generate images by entering prompts. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Shutterstock's data was "critical" in training DALL-E.
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Shutterstock will be introducing DALL-E images to its clients in coming months, according to the press release.
"This collaboration introduces OpenAI's seamless image generation capabilities to Shutterstock audiences worldwide — offering customers the ability to instantly generate images based upon the criteria they type in. That’s what Shutterstock calls Creativity at the Speed of Your Imagination," said Shutterstock's press release.
The strategic partnership between Shutterstock and OpenAI started in 2021.
Crediting artists whose works are used to develop AI-art generators is still a challenge. Shutterstock said it has come up with a framework to compensate contributors whose work was used to train models like DALL-E. The company also has plans to pay out royalties for using intellectual property.
"When this integration launches on Shutterstock.com in the coming months, customers will receive direct access to these AI image generation capabilities improving their creative workflows," stated the release.