Can't say whether the promise of ease of use for the SS customer will play out in practice, but that's what SS claims to be offering - i.e. is the reason that you'd pay them a subscription to use Creative Flow and license the results versus buying credits with one of the AI generators and keeping your fingers crossed you don't get sued in a year or two.

Businesses are often risk averse (with things like image/video licensing) - hence the legal guarantee marketing pitch from a few years back - and would prefer to have a ready answer to anyone who claims they are ripping off the creators on content in the training database if they use AI-generated images. With SS's tools the customer can then say that they did the ethical thing (even if that's just PR drivel fed to them by SS).

From Paul Hennessey in that Tech Crunch article: �Our easy-to-use generative platform will transform the way people tell their stories � you no longer have to be a design expert or have access to a creative team to create exceptional work. Our tools are built on an ethical approach and on a library of assets that represents the diverse world we live in, and we ensure that the artists whose works contributed to the development of these models are recognized and rewarded.�

The Tech Crunch article points out "Again, though, the issue will be whether these payouts be anywhere near the compensation those artists and photographers might have gotten for supplying the images themselves.". The contributor fund results people reported from December suggest that the amounts are like Getty's Connect - minuscule.

In their press release, SS is emphasizing ease of use and convenience as reasons to pick them vs. do-it-yourself

https://investor.shutterstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/shutterstock-introduces-generative-ai-its-all-one-creative

While I was browsing Tech Crunch, I saw this article about more funding for a Berlin-based Canva competitor, Kittl - which is also very much a SS Creative Flow competitor in that Kittl has partnered with Unsplash for images so they are "free" with both the Free and Pro levels of Kittl

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/26/this-startup-hopes-to-take-on-canva-raising-a-11-6m-series-a-for-its-design-platform/

If "good enough" designs and no-hassle "not that bad" images/illustrations slapped together by Canva, Creative Flow or Kittl or (any of the many other similar platforms currently out there) are the future, that really sidelines lots of creative professionals.

Look at SS's short video in their press release - "No time? No budget? No designer? No problem!"

And knowing shutterstock they will try and push their AI created art and price it at pennies. Contributors fund pennies might just become the new subscription sales with us looking forward to the ocassional 10c sale

I'm guessing video will be next, so we'll all have to figure out some next steps to ensure we stay afloat

I just trying to think at what point does it no longer become financially feasible to keep creating and uploading new content, although I know for many this has already become a reality with the 'race to the bottom'.

Personally about January 2014 but for an even more universal date, January 1st 2020 with the new terms and the first level resent. AI is just another hole in the bucket that doesn't hold much water as it is.

Motley Fool wrote a short, and largely positive, piece about Shutterstock's deal with OpenAI

https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/01/28/this-market-beating-stock-is-embracing-the-ai-gene

Stock is up today - whether because of investor optimism about the Open AI deal or something else I don't know. It's at $72.08 this afternoon - about $20 more than a month ago.

There was an SEC filing two weeks ago saying that John Caine will be Global Head of E-Commerce effective January 30, 2023. He came from Nerd Wallet, but before that was with Vroom (used car marketplace) - where the current SS CEO Paul Hennessy came from. They also both worked at Priceline in the early 2000s

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhennessy1/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncaine/

https://investor.shutterstock.com/news-releases/news-release-details/shutterstock-host-investor-day-february-28-2023-extended-reality

Today's press release is about an investor-focused dog and pony show talking up all their latest stuff - their "vision, strategy and financial outlook" In person attendance is by invitation only, so probably contributors in the NYC area can't just drop by

I think it's interesting that this is "Investor Day" - not something focused on building the business or adding customers. I don't remember them doing a "Customer Day" or a "Contributor Day" at any point

Just got the email so I tried AI. Seems I could do endless requests, until I get something I wanted?

Here's what the output is:
Large�1024 � 1024 pixels
3 � 3 in�300 DPI�JPG
$2.90 10 pack, discounts for bigger packs, same as downloads.

They are selling 1024 square images for $2.90? 



And that's the watermark? Right click and save, it's a 1024 JPG, I just added websize for this post.

Select, content aware fill, brush the edges with the healing tool = free image.