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The current state of AI images on stock platforms
Shortly after Midjourney, DALL-E 2, and Stable Diffusion were released in 2022, it was clear that the business model of classic stock image databases would possibly be the first to be threatened.
While the big players like Shutterstock, Adobe, or Getty were still figuring out how to deal with the new technology, new interesting projects like stockai.com were launched. The operators have understood that artificial intelligence extends the range of a stock database practically to infinity. Unfortunately, after a short period of operation, they have announced that they will discontinue their service on February 25, 2023.
This is made possible by connections via API to the corresponding AI models. If no ready-generated image is available on the platform, the user can create one himself with just a few clicks.
Some platforms have also decided against supporting AI after some back and forth. The world’s largest platform of free images Unsplash, which now belongs to Getty, came to the conclusion not to accept AI-generated images. 3D renderings, on the other hand, have been okay for a while.
It is unclear how Unsplash plans to verify the creation of the images. After all, it has long been possible to use AI to imitate the style of well-known 3D programs such as Blender or Octane, so that with a bit of fine-tuning, differences are hardly noticeable.
Paid stock image platforms have also commented on AI, some positively and some negatively. Three major players have emerged: Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Getty Images.
But they don’t just open the doors to AI artists and let them sell their paintings there; there are important differences.
Adobe Stock
As of February 2023, Adobe Stock is the only platform that lets you monetize AI-generated images.
Of course, this is not another empty hack to supposedly make a quick fortune on the Internet. But in fact, there are the first success stories.
Kristina Kashtanova, for example, who made headlines with one of the first AI-generated graphic novels and a copyright dispute, has shared her experiences on Instagram. She has uploaded a whole mass of Midjourney images. She didn’t…
