Getty Images CEO says firms racing to sell AI art could be stepping into illegal territory

Getty Images CEO Craig Peters criticized companies racing to commercialize artificial intelligence art generators, saying the firms are not considering the potential legal and ethical dangers of the technology.

In an interview with On the edge, Peters reiterated Getty Images’ rule against selling AI content (which was banned in September), while announcing a new partnership between the company and Israeli firm Bria to offer AI-based image editing tools. Getty Images’ stance on AI-generated content marks a clear difference with competitor Shutterstock, which announced today that it will integrate AI art generator DALL-E directly into its site offerings.

“We’ve made a move toward AI-generated imagery to protect our customers,” Peters said On the edge. “There are a lot of questions right now – about who owns the copyright to this material, about the rights that were used to create this material – and we don’t want to put our customers in that zone of legal risk […] There have been claims that the copyright is held by x, y, z, by certain platforms, but I don’t think those questions have been answered.”

Peters added: “I think we’re seeing recklessness on the part of some organizations and individuals and companies […] I think the problem here is the fact that these issues are not addressed. In some cases, they are simply dumped on the road. I think this is dangerous. I don’t think it’s responsible. I think it might be illegal.

Many AI art generators are trained on data pulled from the web, including copyrighted images such as Getty Images’ own stock photography. While some experts say the creation of these systems is likely covered by the US fair use doctrine, others suggest there could be future legal challenges as the law catches up with this new technology.

Peters says Getty Images isn’t ignoring the creative potential of AI, though, and stresses that the company’s partnership with Bria will allow it to offer clients “ethical” AI tools. In the short term, they will focus on image editing rather than generation. Bria’s own site touts how the company’s technology can be used to automate simple tasks like removing objects or perform more intrusive edits, such as changing the race, gender and appearance of models in stock photos.

“Create visuals that resonate with any audience by adjusting facial expressions to change people’s moods and recast new presenters,” says the copy on Bria’s website. “Instantly adapt your visual effects to different target demographics and A/B test variations to see which best fulfill your business goals.”

When asked if AI-generated content was a threat to Getty Images’ business, Peters was adamant that it was not. He pointed to the rise of ubiquitous cameras in smartphones as evidence that expertise, not volume, is the determining factor in selling content.

“[The smartphone] it doesn’t jeopardize our business because the core of our business is providing images that actually change a person’s interest level – that gets our attention,” Peters said. “There’s a level of expertise that goes into the images we create that goes beyond the level of just ‘give me a picture.'”