(Image credit: iStock)

Getty Images's new iStock AI art tool really doesn't want your business to get sued

Getty's stock photo site offers commercially safe text-to-image art generation powered by Nividia

· TechRadar

News By Steve Clark published 9 January 2024

Getty Images is ringing in the new year with a new generative AI art tool specifically aimed at advertisers, marketers, and small businesses. 

At CES 2024, the company announced Generative AI by iStock (if the name iStock is familiar, it’s another Getty-owned stock photo site). Powered by Nvidia Picasso and fuelled by an extensive media library, the new tool is designed to make image creation easy and affordable, the company claimed. 

But, even more usefully for businesses deploying the AI art generator, the tool promises commercially safe text-to-image generation, with each one featuring legal coverage up to $10,000.  

New year, new AI art tools

You could hardly move for AI art generators in 2023 - there seemed to be a new one launching every week from the likes of Adobe Express and Freepik. So, it’s no surprise to see more big beasts move into the field of text-to-image generation. 

In any case, iStock, like long-time rival Shutterstock, has gradually been transitioning to a creative hub, with the inclusion of a light online photo editor. But it’s the new AI tool’s “commercially safe” moniker that’s likely to catch the most eyes in a rapidly crowded field. 

 According to Getty Images, “Generative AI by iStock has been engineered to guard against generations of known products, people, places or other copyrighted elements.” Add in the same $10,000 legal coverage already offered on existing iStock images and videos, and the platform immediately becomes more attractive to businesses wary of AI-generated imagery - or fearful of the legal wranglings already underway from artists and photographers worried about how their work is being used on genAI platforms.

“Our own VisualGPS research shows that 42% of SMBs and SMEs are already using AI-generated content to support their marketing efforts. Our main goal with Generative AI by iStock is to provide customers with an easy and affordable option to use AI in their creative process, without fear that something that is legally protected has snuck into the dataset and could end up in their work,” said Grant Farhall, Chief Product Officer at iStock. 

With no free trial currently available, users will need to pay $15 per 100 generations. One generation will produce four different commercially safe images that can be downloaded  and licensed. Supporting over 75 languages, you can check it out by clicking here.  

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