Today’s guest is the co-founder and CEO of vAIsual, the company pioneering the use of generative AI to create synthetic stock media. All of those photos you see online and in print publications of people promoting products usually are human models posing in generic ways. Their pictures are sold by companies like Getty Images in marketplaces that are inefficient and limited in scope.

Michael Osterrieder and his partner Nico are legends in the world of stock media who realized there’s a better way. They created what they call an algorithmic camera and launched vAIsual last year to scratch their own catch. Michael is a serial entrepreneur and photographer based in Budapest and he’s out to test the limits of generative AI.

Listen and learn:

1. How growing up listening to heavy metal inspired Michael's career in visual media
2. What are the challenges of using generative AI to create synthetic stock images of people
3. How visual media content creation has evolved
4. The ethics of generative AI
5. What Michael describes as "the biggest art heist in history"
6. How vAIsual extends human photos using machine vision and human labeling
7. Can an AI be the owner of copyrighted material it produces?
8. What is the definition of consciousness?

References in this episode...

• AI has a burnout problem
• Eric Olson from Consensus on AI and the Future of Work
• Jonathan Frankle on AI and the Future of Work
• Michael's whitepaper about vAIsual