In a move set to shake up the stock photo industry, AI chip maker Nvidia and image licensing powerhouse Getty Images have joined forces to launch Generative AI by iStock, a text-to-image tool promising a new era of visual creation.
At just $14.99 for 100 prompts, the app, which was unveiled during the ongoing CES conference in Las Vegas, puts AI-powered photo generation within reach of individual creators and small businesses. Each prompt generates four images.
Powered by Picasso, Nvidia’s generative AI platform for visual design, and trained on data from Getty Images’ creative libraries, Generative AI by iStock will compete with OpenAI’s DALL-E, which charges more.
This means marketers, designers, and social media promoters no longer need to scour generic stock photo or video libraries. With the new tool, they can conjure up bespoke visuals to match their needs, simply by typing in text descriptions.
Users are legally protected against copyright infringement
But the real game changer here is the legal indemnity. In the murky world of AI-generated content, copyright and ownership questions abound. OpenAI, Midjourney and Stability AI have been sued by artists. Generative AI by iStock tackles this problem by offering users as much as $10,000 in protection per image. So if anyone challenges the originality or legality of your AI-created photo, Getty Images, which owns iStock, has your back, covering legal fees up to the specified amount.
Users are free to craft their desired product shot, illustrate a blog post with a picture no one else has, or generate unique social media videos with up to 4K resolution—all without worrying about copyright infringement.
Grant Farhall, iStock’s chief product officer, said in a press release that the goal is to offer people a simple and cost-effective solution for integrating AI into their creative work. “Our AI Generator is easy to use, produces relevant and high‑quality visuals, and is backed by our legal protection so customers can now safely use this new service.”
The new tool includes goodies for software developers, too. “Getty Images is also making advanced inpainting and outpainting features available via application programming interfaces (APIs), launching on iStock.com and Gettyimages.com soon,” Nvidia said in a blog post. Once launched, the APIs will let developers do things like add people and objects to images and replace certain elements.
Now the question is whether this marks the dawn of a new era of creative democratization, where anyone, for just $15, can become a professional visual artist with help from AI.