It’s been over a year since iStock/Getty launched their AI-generated image platforms, “Generative AI by Getty Images” and “Generative AI by iStock Images“, developed in partnership with NVIDIA.
In a Press Release from September 2023, Getty pledged that “contributors will be compensated for any inclusion of their content in the training set”. Yet, there’s still no news on when contributors will be compensated or by how much – let’s get started on the discussion!
Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Pond5 Lead the Way in AI Compensation
While iStock / Getty remains silent on compensation details, competitors like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Pond5 are consistently paying contributors for AI training as you’ll see examples of payments below from my own portfolios.
Shutterstock, for example, launched its contributor fund in 2022, coinciding with its decision to no longer reject licensable content. Below, you can see how these payments have appeared in my Microstockr dashboard over the past two years with more on the way:
…with Adobe Stock AI payments:
Pond5 joined the compensation movement later, rolling out payments in mid-2024 with “Dataset Payments”:
But where are iStock / Getty’s contributions?
EU AI Act Transparency Obligations
As covered in a previous post, the EU AI Act is now in effect, mandating that agencies operating in the EU must be transparent. This includes publishing summaries of copyrighted data used for AI training. For more on these requirements and their implications.
See below the full blog post on their obligations and repercussions:
Stay Tuned
I consider myself patient, sometimes too patient so let’s give iStock / Getty a few more months to clarify the situation. The hold up might be partly due to the ongoing litigation with Stable Difficusion in the US courts, who knows. Come the new year and there’s no news, we as contributors should start putting immense pressure on them to provide some answers.
I’ll keep an eye on developments and update this post (and others) as soon as more information comes to light – meanwhile, if you have news/comments please comment below!
About Alex
I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted ten years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model while shaming scammers.
I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE – here is the story), which I’ve upgraded to a Mini 3 Pro and the Air3.
I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
They paid now. And of course as it was expected, it is just pennies. And to know the amount you have to download their report file and search there yourself.
LikeLike