Shutterstock consistently strives to support both creators and businesses. This involves implementing protective regulations that safeguard creators’ rights without stifling the innovation that benefits clients. Here, we’ll walk you through our process.
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License these images via Shutterstock AI Generator x2 x3.
The Challenges of Ethical AI
Generative AI is transforming industries, including the creative sector, by enabling the production of art, music, and scripts from simple prompts.
For creators, this technological advancement raises concerns about job security and the value of their work, as well as making it challenging to find creative assets while maintaining integrity.
For businesses training their own AI/machine learning models, finding training data that is both high quality and responsibly sourced can become an onerous task.
As Shutterstock strives to support both creators and businesses, the key challenge lies in ethically harnessing AI’s potential. This involves implementing protective regulations that safeguard creators’ rights without stifling the innovation that benefits clients.
Establishing Ethical Use of AI in Art for Creators
AI’s rapid advancement has ignited legitimate concerns among creators, such as how generative AI can be used ethically to create art.
A primary issue is AI’s data-driven learning process. The use of sensitive, personal, or proprietary data in content generation could lead to unauthorized use, potentially resulting in privacy invasions or other dangerous outcomes.
Creators also worry that AI could supplant roles traditionally requiring years of experience, training, and specialized knowledge. There’s a fear that generative AI models might plagiarize original art or infringe on copyrights, devaluing creators’ work and threatening their livelihoods.
Finding the Right Way to Regulate Generative AI for Businesses
However, there’s a flip side to consider. Overly stringent regulations on AI and machine learning could stifle innovation and creativity. Excessively harsh restrictions might create barriers to effectively utilizing AI models, potentially impeding progress across various fields.
There’s also concern that regulations may struggle to keep pace with the rapidly evolving technological landscape, further hindering innovation.
The critical challenge in generative AI and machine learning lies in striking the right balance between responsible, ethical development and fostering innovation. Shutterstock is emerging as a key player in this balancing act, striving to navigate the complex interplay between ethics and innovation in the AI landscape.
Ethical Generative AI for Creators and Businesses
Shutterstock has lent its vast digital content library to various machine learning institutions to help provide the material necessary to develop, train, and refine AI machine learning algorithms.
By integrating our extensive content into AI development frameworks, Shutterstock aims to pioneer new frontiers in generative AI, ensuring that ethical creative expression remains at the forefront of technological advancement. The hoped result is an AI model that empowers creators to focus more on ideation by removing tedious busywork, accelerating innovation.
At the forefront of this conversation is the need for regulation of AI and original artwork. Shutterstock’s dataset licensing program is a primary example of how we are striking the balance between ethics and innovation, and how we protect our creators and their original work while fostering innovation from other artists.
Shutterstock Dataset Licensing
Shutterstock’s role extends beyond sharing its extensive digital content library; it champions a holistic ecosystem that protects creators and intellectual property rights via a program called “dataset licensing.”
Dataset licensing from Shutterstock allows customers to use images, videos, audio/SFX, or 3D models from its vast library specifically for machine learning purposes. This means AI models can learn from and use information from original content to generate new pieces.
Shutterstock tailors these datasets to fit customers’ specific model training needs, carefully curating collections of assets.
How Dataset Licensing Protects Artists While Fostering Innovation
Customers purchasing Shutterstock’s datasets receive a limited license that only permits the use of the metadata for training AI models. To protect the original content, Shutterstock strictly prohibits the use of datasets for marketing or advertising purposes.
It’s important to note that this is different from traditional image licensing, which is what companies use when they want to publish or directly integrate content in their materials.
Once the AI generates the new piece of content from the dataset, Shutterstock pays the original creator via the Shutterstock Contributor Fund. To date, the fund has compensated millions of artists for the role their content IP has played in training our generative technology.
At the heart of dataset licensing is Shutterstock’s commitment to transparency and protecting its creators. Creators must consent to participating in the program based on our contributor terms of service, or they can opt out of the dataset licensing program. To date, less than 1% of creators opted out.
Understanding Shutterstock’s TRUST Framework
TRUST is Shutterstock’s ethical AI framework that guides our approach to artificial intelligence. It stands for the following:
- Training on properly licensed data
- Royalties to fairly compensate artist
- Uplifting diverse representation
- Safeguards to protect content and customers
- Transparency by design
This action-driven framework embodies Shutterstock’s values and commitment to deploying AI responsibly.
Shutterstock’s Dedication to Ethical AI
Shutterstock’s strategic foray into the AI and machine learning space to enhance creative innovation through AI capabilities demonstrates the company’s dedication to protecting creators while promoting ethical AI and machine learning use. By eliminating creative barriers that often hinder innovation, Shutterstock and AI empower other creatives to accelerate their ideas by automating the busywork.
Shutterstock’s dataset licensing program offers legal protections for creators, underlining the company’s commitment to prioritizing its creators and valuing their contributions. This collaboration sets a new standard for responsible AI development in the creative industry, balancing technological advancement with creator rights and ethical considerations via Shutterstock’s TRUST Framework.
License this cover image via Shutterstock AI and Javier Pardina.
This post was originally published onSeptember 19, 2024
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