Stock image provider Getty Images has recently launched its own text-to-image generative AI tool which it claims is, “Commercially safe” because it was trained exclusively on the company’s stock photo platform.
The new tool is called ‘Generative AI by Getty Images’ and it uses Nvidia’s Edify model to create images, videos, or 3D graphics. Edify is a component of Nvidia’s Picasso platform, which houses various generative AI models on its cloud service.
In contrast to other commercial text-to-image tools, Getty’s model was not trained using third-party images collected from the internet. Instead, it was trained on data owned by the stock photo provider. This means that any images generated by the new tool should not infringe on copyright laws.
Embracing generative AI
Grant Farhall, Getty’s chief product officer said in a blog post, “We’ve listened to customers about the swift growth of generative AI – and have heard both excitement and hesitation – and tried to be intentional around how we developed our own tool.”
“We’ve created a service that allows brands and marketers to safely embrace AI and stretch their creative possibilities, while compensating creators for inclusion of their visuals in the underlying training sets,” Farhall added.
The results produced by the service can be used under Getty Images’ regular licensing terms. Users are required to make a single payment to Getty for licensing the AI-generated image. However, they are not permitted to grant licenses to third parties or receive royalties for machine-generated creations.
Terms of use
A Getty Spokesperson told The Register that, “Similar to when customers license content from Getty Images’ pre-shot library, they do not own the file [or] image itself, but Getty Images grants customers a license to use the content. As such, customers are not able to further license generated content to additional parties, nor receive their own royalties as part of their agreement.”
The price for using the image generation software is determined by the number of times an individual uses it to generate their desired image. When a description or prompt is placed into the software, it will generate four distinct variations of the image.
“As customers commit to higher volumes of prompts, they will achieve savings on a per prompt basis. Customers will also be able to download a licensed version of any visual they generate, for no extra charge,” said Getty’s spokesperson.
Contributors will be paid
As for paying creators, “We will compensate contributors for all licensing. This includes where contributors’ content is used as training data for AI. On an annual recurring basis, we will share in the revenues generated from the tool with contributors whose content was used to train the AI Generator, allocating both a pro rata share in respect of every file and allocating a share based on traditional licensing revenue.”
The image library also mentioned that it won’t include custom AI-generated images from individuals in its database. However, it will keep the content along with the input descriptions or prompts used for generating these images to train its model.
“Your prompts, generated images, and feedback will all be used in retraining our model to become more effective for you, our customer. By allowing our model to learn and improve through retraining, we can provide you with an improved experience such as better understanding the intent of your prompt or reducing deformations in generated content,” Getty stated in a FAQ.
Getty also stated that a content filter which assesses input prompts will prevent users from trying to create inappropriate or explicit content. Getty believes that their model should be a safer option for such scenarios compared to other commercial tools available, partly due to their past curation efforts for the library used to train the AI.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
