As the first to bring commercially safe AI to
the industry, Shutterstock TRUST serves as a guide for brands
and agencies seeking a framework for responsible AI
NEW
YORK, Nov. 9, 2023 /CNW/ -- Shutterstock,
Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a leading global creative platform
connecting brands and businesses to quality content, today
announced TRUST, an official guiding framework that embodies
Shutterstock's long-standing values and commitment to using AI
responsibly in its products and workflows. TRUST, an acronym for
Training, Royalties, Uplift, Safeguards and Transparency, reflects
the core commitments that Shutterstock has actively upheld over the
last two decades. In an unregulated and rapidly evolving industry,
this framework can also serve as an action-driven checklist for
companies experimenting with AI technologies and reiterates
Shutterstock's lifelong, contributor-centric operating
principles.
TRUST's commitments include:
Training on properly licensed data
Royalties that compensate artists fairly
Uplift and promote representation that reflects the
world
Safeguards to control content and protect customers
Transparency by default
"Maintaining the trust of our contributors and customers is
at our core, and our TRUST framework affirms the actions we take to
support this commitment," said Dr. Alessandra Sala, Senior Director of AI and Data
Science at Shutterstock. "We've always trained on properly licensed
data, sought out new revenue streams for our contributors and
uplifted creators and underrepresented groups. TRUST formalizes
these principles in a clear, straightforward approach that others
in the industry can follow as they embark on their own responsible
AI journeys."
Training
Respecting the IP rights of artists is
central to Shutterstock's business as a world leader in content
licensing. This includes ensuring that our AI models are trained
only on properly licensed content and requiring our AI partners to
uphold the same standard. Shutterstock takes careful steps to
ensure it has the rights to license the content on its platform,
and that the content complies with our content standards.
Further, contributors are empowered with the option to opt out
of data deals to respect their autonomy and preferences, however,
to date only about 1 percent of contributors to the Shutterstock
platform have chosen to do so.
Royalties
Shutterstock's Contributor Fund is a
testament to our commitment to supporting artists through
compensation. To date, the Shutterstock Contributor Fund has
compensated hundreds of thousands of artists, with anticipated
payments to millions more, for the role their content IP has played
in training our generative technology.
Uplift
Our mission has always been to elevate
inclusive content and invest in supporting and partnering with
underrepresented content creators to achieve the broadest spectrum
of representation. Shutterstock's teams strive to improve
representation of different genders, ethnicities, and orientations,
as well as to ensure a fair creative platform through initiatives
like the Create Fund and partnerships with UN AI for Good and World
Ethical Data Foundation. This also includes enhancing and expanding
the usage of human-created stock content, ensuring our AI features
empower advanced use of such content to support—not replace—the
unique talent of artists.
Safeguards
Shutterstock pioneered advanced
indemnity protections for a worry-free experience for its customers
and their audiences, ensuring an ethical approach, legal integrity
and brand safety through tailored protections and content
controls.
Shutterstock's multi-layered content controls help to prevent
the creation of content that displays adult themes, offensive
themes or violence. These safeguards also include protection
against AI training liability on all licenses of AI-generated
content. Shutterstock Enterprise users can also receive the same
protections for AI-generated content as traditional stock assets,
while special cases receive an additional asset assurance.
In a survey conducted with Shutterstock Enterprise customers,
more than 60 percent of respondents said that the most important
criteria for them when choosing an AI platform is the guarantee of
safe commercial use. Shutterstock is the only company to offer
Enterprise users the option for a human review of their licensed
content for indemnification.
Transparency
Shutterstock believes in
transparent AI practices and content provenance. It commits to a
clear distinction between AI-generated and human-created content on
the Shutterstock platform to help safeguard against deepfakes,
disinformation and other forms of misuse. Shutterstock does not
sell AI-generated content with unknown or unclear provenance and
contributors cannot upload AI-generated content to Shutterstock's
core library. Through support of and membership in the Content
Authenticity Initiative, the company is also labeling all
AI-generated content and metadata according to C2PA/IPTC industry
standards to further protect its users with verifiable and
tamper-evident information across all forms of content ensuring
each asset is certified with secure metadata about its creation,
authorship and edit history.
Shutterstock's ethical approach to AI has made the company a
highly sought-after partner and collaborator with industry leaders
such as NVIDIA, Meta, OpenAI, LG and others to develop foundational
generative AI tools and standards for creators across 3D, images
and text. Shutterstock's high-quality content library, enriched
with vast metadata, leads the industry in size, diversity and
annotation—making it unrivaled for training AI capabilities.
About Shutterstock, Inc.
Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE:
SSTK) is a premier partner for transformative brands, digital media
and marketing companies, empowering the world to create with
confidence. Fueled by millions of creators around the world and a
fearless approach to product innovation, Shutterstock is the
leading global platform for licensing from the most extensive and
diverse collection of high-quality 3D models, videos, music,
photographs, vectors and illustrations. From the world's largest
content marketplace, to breaking news and A-list entertainment
editorial access, to all-in-one content editing platform and studio
production service—all using the latest in innovative
technology—Shutterstock offers the most comprehensive selection of
resources to bring storytelling to life.
Learn more at www.shutterstock.com and follow us on LinkedIn,
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shutterstock-unveils-trust-its-best-in-class-approach-for-ethical-ai-301983603.html
SOURCE Shutterstock, Inc.