Decoder with Nilay Patel

Getty Images CEO Craig Peters has a plan to defend photography from AI

Oct 5, 2023

Getty Images CEO Craig Peters discusses the threat of generative AI to photography. They talk about Getty's proprietary AI tool, copyright concerns, compensation for photographers, combating disinformation, litigation, industry stability, copyright laws in the music industry, the impact of the internet on the photography industry, and exceptional photographs.

34:08

Episode guests

Craig Peters

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Quick takeaways

Getty Images CEO, Craig Peters, discusses the company's decision to ban AI-generated content due to copyright concerns and potential misuse of AI.

Getty Images has introduced their own Generative AI tool, trained on their own content, with strict limitations and a compensation system for photographers.

Deep dives

Getty Images Bans AI-Generated Content Uploads

Getty Images CEO, Craig Peters, discusses the company's decision to ban users from uploading or selling AI-generated content. While Getty is open to AI development, they have concerns about copyright issues and the potential misuse of AI. The company has also filed a lawsuit against Stability AI for training their AI tool on Getty's photos, which resulted in images with Getty watermarks.

Introduction

3min

The Importance of Authentic Images and Combating Disinformation

12min

AI, Litigation, and IP Ownership

2min

6min

The Impact of the Internet on the Photography Industry

2min

9min

Last week, when I was co-hosting the Code Conference, I got to talk with Getty Images CEO Craig Peters. The generative AI boom is a direct threat to Getty in many ways. For example, the company is suing Stability AI for training the Stable Diffusion model on Getty content — sometimes clearly including AI-generated copies of the Getty watermark — without permission.

Getty's answer? Its own proprietary, in-house AI tool, trained — with permission — on its own content, using a model where the original creators can get paid. Getty's put some pretty strict guardrails around it for now, but, as even Craig told us, there's still a lot of work to do.

Links:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/21/23364696/getty-images-ai-ban-generated-artwork-illustration-copyright

https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/6/23587393/ai-art-copyright-lawsuit-getty-images-stable-diffusion

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/25/23884679/getty-ai-generative-image-platform-launch

https://www.theverge.com/23900198/microsoft-kevin-scott-ai-art-bing-google-nvidia-decoder-interview

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/06/section-230-the-internet-law-politicians-love-to-hate-explained/

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/18/1176881182/supreme-court-sides-against-andy-warhol-foundation-in-copyright-infringement-cas

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/26/23808184/big-ai-really-wants-to-convince-us-that-theyre-cautious

https://journal.everypixel.com/ai-image-statistics

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/22/1177590231/fake-viral-images-of-an-explosion-at-the-pentagon-were-probably-created-by-ai

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23667741

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