A database of 100,000 AI generated stock photos will change your perception of stock photography

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By Matthew Griffin Intelligence and the Senses 27th September 2019

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

If you generate photographic content for stock photography sites in the future you’ll be in competition with AI.

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You have to admit it, some of the uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are simply fascinating. One of the more exciting aspects of AI is seeing all the potential ways the technology can be applied to our daily lives, even if it at times it seems a little creepy. For example, asides from underpinning all your Google searches AI’s are also creating robo-art and music, with one piece of art selling recently for over $430,000, and an AI musician being signed to the massive time Warner label, and elsewhere AI’s are predicting when people are going to die – all kinds of fun stuff.

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Recently I also talked about AI’s from Nvidia that were creating high quality images of fake people, and if you’ve ever worked for a creative agency or have worked on any creative project in general, you’ll no doubt have dealt with the often frustrating world of stock images. I know I have.

The new face of stock photography, pun intended.

Stock images themselves are very convenient. However, there is always a small fear of using a stock image as a brand, for example, because you definitely don’t want to come across another company using the same image as you – it not only looks bad, but it also looks lazy and depending on what the other company’s doing with that image things could just get plain confusing.

Now AI seems to have a solution to this problem by being able to generate unique, one off high quality stock images of models that don’t exist. That’s right, AI can now generate imaginary faces and people for your next project that no one else will be able to nab. Dubbed Generated Photos, the collection of faces was created by Konstantin Zhabinskiy and his team – just think Shutterstock or iPhoto except a site where all the images are created by an AI and not by a human, photoshopper, or photographer.

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As stated on the webpage by the Generated Photos team, “These people aren’t real! We are building the next generation of media through the power of AI. Copyrights, distribution rights, and infringement claims will soon be things of the past.”

The library of faces comprises of 100,000 different “people” all with various expressions, looks, skin colors, hairstyles, and so on. And the best bit? You can try it and use it now…. with the added benefit you’ll never have to worry about copyright issues or being copied ever again.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.