In the digital age, an image can convey emotions and tell stories like nothing else. Yet, we’ve all seen those iconic images that, after being overused, lose some of their impact. Getty Images, a major player in the world of visual content, is tackling this challenge head-on by venturing into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI).

Think about the classic image of a lone polar bear stranded on an ice floe—a powerful symbol of climate change. Chances are, you’ve come across it numerous times. Grant Farhall, Chief Product Officer at Getty Images, envisions a different approach. He suggests an image of penguins casually strolling along a busy city boulevard—a creative and imaginative way to depict climate change. Getty Images aims to make such inventive visuals possible through its newly released AI image generator.

Farhall elaborates, “Unless you have access to a bunch of penguins and can convince downtown New York to shut off a block so you can march them down and take some photos, that’s really hard to produce. But that’s where the AI generator can create really compelling visuals to explore that type of concept.“

Getty Images recognized the potential of AI to enhance its extensive library of over 477 million assets. Teaming up with NVIDIA, they embarked on a journey to train a model exclusively on their vast catalog. Importantly, Getty Images took great care to ensure that this AI-generated content could be used by clients without any concerns of copyright infringement. This commitment stems from past experiences, including a ban on AI-generated art from contributors and a legal battle with image AI giant Stability over unauthorized use of their intellectual property.

Farhall underscores the importance of client peace of mind, stating, “[Our customers] don’t want to be lying awake at night, worrying about what may be coming downstream because they used a visual in their marketing or creative. What we were looking to do was provide them something that they could apply across that creative process from ideation right through to production, but in a way that gave them that peace of mind and that commercial safety.“

AI has ushered in a new era for creative photo banks like Getty Images. Machine-generated art has flooded their platforms, challenging traditional notions of visual content creation. Getty’s competitors, such as Shutterstock and Adobe, have also embraced this technological shift. Shutterstock introduced its AI generation tools, and Adobe has integrated its purportedly copyright-safe service, Firefly, into its products.

Similar to Adobe’s Firefly, Getty Images ensures that artists are fairly compensated for the inclusion of their content in the training data. Generated images, however, will not be added to photo libraries for licensing but may be used to enhance the tool’s capabilities in the future. Customers will receive Getty Images’ standard royalty-free license for the AI-generated content.

While much of the initial demand for the AI tool has focused on behind-the-scenes creative production—such as ideation, brainstorming, and storyboarding—there is also growing client interest in utilizing it for the finished product. Clients are increasingly seeing the potential to streamline and enhance their creative processes, ultimately creating efficiencies in their workflow.

Getty Images sees its new AI tool as a cornerstone for its broader vision around AI integration. The company intends to expand its availability to a wider range of customers and, eventually, empower them to train their own AI models, tailored to their unique color palettes and branding. Grant Farhall emphasizes the significance of this endeavor, stating, “This is going to be a focal point for the company.“

Preserving the Essence of Getty Images: Despite these grand ambitions in the AI arena, Getty Images remains steadfast in its identity as a visual content company first and foremost. Technology serves as a tool to enhance their core mission—to provide captivating visuals to their customers. In Grant Farhall’s words, “Getty Images will remain and has remained a visual content company first and foremost. We apply technology to provide those visuals to our customers. And AI is not changing that stance.“