Picsart teams up with Getty Images to offer “commerically safe” AI-generated art

Picsart, maker of the popular photo-editing app, has announced a partnership with Getty Images to launch a new generative AI model. The model, which has been trained exclusively on Getty Images’ library of licensed images, will grant Picsart subscribers full commercial rights to any creative content made using the AI tool. This is notable because competing AI image generators like Midjourney have been plagued with allegations of copyright infringement.

To that end, Picsart is positioning the new model as a “commercially safe” option for creators looking to take advantage of AI-generated images. The company is specifically targeting marketers and small businesses who may already use Picsart for social media campaigns. Users will be able to use the app’s various editing tools to further modify or enhance images created by the AI tool.

Picsart already offers a range of generative AI-powered features to its subscribers, including an AI image generator based on the open-source Stable Diffusion project. In August 2023, the company announced that its AI had created over half a billion images. Likewise, Getty Images is no stranger to AI — it launched its own image generator last year. Before that, it filed a lawsuit against Stable Diffusion for allegedly stealing 12 million copyrighted works.

Relatively few companies can proclaim their AI image generators to be “commercially safe.” Adobe’s Firefly model comes close as it was claimed to be trained exclusively on the company’s library of stock images and art in the public domain. However, confidence in Adobe’s AI offerings has nosedived due to suspicions that the company used Midjourney images in its training data. A controversial update to Adobe’s legal agreement also left users fuming earlier this month. The company was forced to issue a clarification and promise it would never train its models on user-generated content.

Having said that, Adobe and Picsart target different segments of the creative market. Picsart’s smartphone heritage means that its users might be more likely to turn to AI assistance. We’ll know for sure when the company’s new model in collaboration with Getty Images releases later in 2024.

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