Shutterstock Partners with LG AI Research to Advance Responsible AI Tools for Creatives
Shutterstock recently announced a new, long-term partnership with LG AI Research that will see the companies joining resources to bring ethical AI technology to Shutterstock’s platform, in the form of multiple AI-driven tools that will be available from next year.
An AI image generator, an AI image captioning software, and an AI creative toolkit, are among the launches you can expect from Shutterstock+LG in 2023.
These tools are being trained with Shutterstock’s vast data and metadata sets, and contributors will be compensated for the use of their work in AI training.
Read on for more details!
EXAONE Text-to-Image Generator
One of the most exciting projects the companies have been collaborating on, which will be available for customers in 2023, is LG’s EXAONE, a sophisticated generative AI model that converts text prompts into computer-generated images.
EXAONE is being trained with millions of images and metadata from Shutterstock’s library, which presumably will give content created with it a higher legitimacy status, and it’s meant to expand users' creative possibilities, by letting you create your own images from scratch.
Interestingly, Shutterstock has already rolled out Shutterstock Generate in January 2023, their very own text-to-image AI generator, built in collaboration with OpenAI and leveraging the popular Dall-E model.
EXAONE’s AI Image Captioning
Another feature of LG’s EXAONE software is the reverse of AI image generation: analyzing any image to turn it into descriptive text and labels.
This intelligent image captioning tech intends to help customers by automating a non-creative task (captioning and labeling media) to help them better store and find their creative assets whenever needed.
EXAONE Atelier: AI Creative Toolkit
Finally, the two entities are exploring new creative opportunities through their collaboration, in EXAONE Atelier, which is described as an AI creative toolkit.
While not a lot has been revealed regarding the functionality of this development, we do know it is conceived to “inspire designers and creators by leveraging generative AI”.
At this time we can only guess what it will include, it could be AI-powered image editing to improve images created with EXAONE, for example.
Shutterstock Contributor Fund: Compensating Artists for AI Training
Not long ago, Shutterstock disclosed the creation of a Contributor Fund, a program through which they will pay royalties to contributors, for the use of their work in AI software training, and also for the use of their IP in newly-generated content.
This was announced in connection with a new Shutterstock+Dall-E tool, but it was now added that it will also include the training of LG-based features such as EXAONE.
All contributors whose work was used to train the new tools, and those whose intellectual property was used when creating new visuals, will be compensated accordingly through the Fund.
Why LG AI Research
Shutterstock has recently expressed its stance of fully embracing AI developments in the visual industry, but with a strong focus on ethical responsibility toward artists and content creators.
Per the announcement, LG AI Research’s work in the past years has been and remains aligned with this principle. Adding their impressive research and development capabilities, make them an ideal partner to bring responsible, generative AI models for synthetic media to Shutterstock’s platform.
Shutterstock+LG AI Research: Promising, Ethical AI Creative Tools
This move further cements the tech-first philosophy Shutterstock has been known for since its launch twenty years ago, as well as its most recent commitment to an ethical approach to AI generative solutions.
Such a high-profile partnership as this one with LG AI Research, and announcing multiple new tools already in the works, are all reasons to be excited for what 2023 will bring for the company, and for its users.
The features sound very promising, that’s for sure.
What do you think?
