Stock Photo and Art Community Sites
#Stand Taken by Stock Photo Sites
As early as September 2022, Petapixel noted that stock photo sites are witnessing thousands of AI generated images being uploaded for sale. The stock photo sites have started recognizing that AI generated images should be taken seriously. Sites such as Getty Images have banned AI generated images on their site.
#Customer acceptance
The question that deserves further discussion is, with the current state of AI image rendering, will the social media marketers and graphic artists and designers find the quality of the AI rendered images acceptable? Below is one such example,
#Stock Photo
Red Sports Car in a desert (Source: Needpix)
AI rendered Image
#Stand taken by Well Known Artists
Many new technology projects started as hobby or research projects, before they went mainstream, Corporations and regulators got involved, and these projects were no more hobby projects that could fly under the radar.
I mentioned the names of a few well known artists whose style is replicated across many AI Imaging tools. Greg Rutowski, wlop and Artgerm (Stanley Artgerm Lau) other creators. Many of them are living, and actively creating art work. The AI tools as per them, replicate their technique, their style their IP, to an extent and the same is being utilized by these AI based imaging tools.
Which brings up the question, what about creative styles of artists who are no longer alive? (Turner, Van Gough, Alphanse Mucha, and several others?) Is it still okay to create images in their style?
The issue of copyrights and derivative works is a tricky one, depending on the jurisdiction or copyright laws of the country where one resides. Indian copyright Law, for example, protects the works for 60 years after the death of the creator. Timeline may vary for others. Generally speaking, I try and avoid balatantly using names or styles, but try and use terms like "in the style of" or "similar to" etc. for now. Most recently, in addition to Raja Ravi Verma and K Venkatappa, I have also found the design styles of Edvard Munch and Paul Gaughin quite suitable for creating artwork for our podcasts.
Depending on how this field grows, once large scale adaptation takes place, and Lakhs and Crores of Rupees (Or millions of US Dollars) start changing hands, things might get serious and Lawyers and Law enforcement might get involved. Hopefully that will not be the case.
Most recently (December 2022) creators and artists on Artstation have started protesting against the flurry of AI generated images.
#What do you think will be the way forward for Stock Image sites?
With the advent of not only AI Imaging sites, but also sites that use this technique to generate large number of stock images, the way forward for Stock Image sites, portfolio sites for artists and photographers alike should be interesting. Stockai and onemoreai is one of the sites I came across that may pose a challenge to the stock image sites.
I am a cool cat. Seek my permission before using my image or my style!