Meta gives Shutterstock a second chance on AI images

Meta has struck a fresh partnership with Shutterstock, giving the photo service access to OpenAI’s DALL-E tools so it can continue to generate AI images. The deal comes just weeks after Shutterstock’s first partnership with OpenAI controversially ended. <br><br>The new agreement means Shutterstock “will also have access to the OpenAI DALL-E image generation API”, Meta said in a blog post. The cloud-based API will be used to generate DALL-E images on Shutterstock’s servers and on its platform. Meta and Shutterstock will co-brand the images that are generated using DALL-E under their own labels.<br><br>“This new partnership is also designed to ensure that the AI images generated by Shutterstock are ‘fair and ethical’”, a spokesperson for Shutterstock told TechCrunch. <br><br>The partnership also marks the beginning of an expanded relationship between Shutterstock and Meta, the two companies said. They will work on incorporating AI models developed by Meta - such as the company’s own generative AI, Llama - into Shutterstock’s products and services. <br><br>The expanded partnership overhauls Shutterstock’s previous partnership with OpenAI, which went up in smoke in August. OpenAI allegedly terminated the deal over concerns that Shutterstock’s generative AI model was copying DALL-E’s style. Interestingly, Meta has a partnership with OpenAI, meaning this new deal will now let Shutterstock “continue to use OpenAI's DALL-E API under the terms of the new partnership with Meta".