The Big Business of AI Image Generators
And what it means for artists and photographers
Meta, Google, and other startups have flocked to the AI art economy potential. Big tech is pushing investment in art-producing Generative AI and applying the tech to other forms of content creation like music and podcasts. Tech companies are using generative AI to build chatbots that can converse with originality, and it's no wonder that generative art is dubbed the “second wave” of AI. Much of this technology is some years away, leaving plenty of questions that need answering with regard to ethics and ownership.
Cloud computing companies, providers, and advanced GPU processor developers are primary beneficiaries since generative AI programs require a lot of computational power and data, and many AI programs are used for data analysis. Generative AI brings new things into existence and is not just offering data and insights. In addition, generative AI programs could have potentially lucrative content-creation mechanisms for advertising.
Generative AI opens up revenue streams for tech companies, but there are ethical and legal liability concerns that could dip into profits. Stock agencies like Getty Images and Shutterstock have banned AI-generated images over copyright concerns, and rightly so.
