Shutterstock is offering full indemnification to Enterprise customers for the licensing and usage of generative AI images on its platform. This initiative aims to provide customers with peace of mind and protection against potential claims related to their use of AI-generated images obtained from Shutterstock.
As the use of generative AI technology continues to grow, businesses seek assurance regarding the legal rights to use AI-generated content, while content creators want to ensure their work is fairly licensed. Shutterstock claims it is uniquely positioned to offer indemnification for generative AI images due to its strong relationship with artists and deep understanding of licensing complexities.
The company initially unveiled this indemnification assurance to a global technology customer during the Shutterstock Showcase, where an AI-generated image was used for a virtual developer conference. Subsequently, the company extended indemnification to an upcoming television series by a leading cable network. Now, this offering is available on demand to all enterprise customers.
While AI-generated images created by customers are not currently reviewed and vetted en masse on the Shutterstock platform, this new offering ensures that customers can license such content with the same level of protection provided in their existing agreements. This indemnification offering represents one of several strategic steps taken by Shutterstock to bring AI to creative production. The company recently launched the AI Design Assistant and the AI Image Generator powered by DALL·E technology. The AI image generator is trained on hundreds of millions of ethically-sourced assets, including content from Shutterstock, ensuring customers can generate and license new assets with complete commercial safety.
Shutterstock’s first-in-kind Contributor Fund, established in October 2022, compensates artists for their content’s role in training the generative technology and provides ongoing royalties tied to licensing activity for newly generated assets.
