Shutterstock now integrates AI image generation via DALL-E

Sutterstock, one of the world’s most popular photo sources, has officially launched its own AI-powered image generation solution. The company had already announced the partnership with OpenAI, the company behind some of the most popular AI-powered content generation solutions such as DALL-E and ChatGPT.

Shutterstock photo licensing service lets users create their own AI-powered images

The functionality to generate images via DALL-E integration on Shutterstock has been available for some time to users paying subscriptions on the site in beta, and now this capability is fully operational in a final release.

Shutterstock customers can generate images based on their own descriptions in all languages in which the site’s services are available, so you’re not limited to English. Each generation request offers four variants. You can also see other “artwork” generated by other users using the service, which you can access and download.

To avoid controversy over the legitimacy of using unlicensed images to train artificial intelligence to create new derivative works of art, Shutterstock says it used only images it has a license to in this DALL-E integration. The company also says that artists whose artwork is used to train the AI and is used as the basis for new creations will be rewarded for their work. This will be done through a “Contributors Fund”. The first payment from this fund happened at the end of the previous fiscal quarter in December 2022.

Of course, there’s also a regulation that might be hard to enforce regarding images generated on Shutterstock with AI. Customers must not use the images generated to infringe the intellectual rights of other people or companies, generate spam, false information or images depicting violence. Thus, legal responsibility is passed on to users, even if the AI generates images that may infringe the copyrights of other entities.