profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

I am not a high production photographer for stock photos, but I enjoy adding more pictures to my Shutterstock account and to see which ones sell the most and where they end up globally.

So, over the last two days, I submitted 11 new pictures. Usually, I do these in blocks of 11-15. This time 5 of them were accepted into aq new category, Data Licensing. It turns out that this new category is where the companies that want photos on which to train their AI software can go and select all they want. So, now five of my pictures are in the pool from which companies can select their thousands of pictures to train their software. I will have to see if I get more or less money for these photos.

Interesting. I have attached one of the five photos which are now in this category from me.

Anyone else have this experience? --Richard

(Download)

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Aaaha, so this is what street photography is... now I know the true true meaning as defined by Shutterstock's AI system's definition ... vs the confusion of people such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Gulnara Samoilova, Trent Parke, and the likes of them.

profbowman, Your demonstration of the fallibility of AI's thinking is well stated.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

It could also be one of those pictures where I have to prove I'm not a robot.

User ID

Its always been difficult to prove that Im not a robot.

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Ah, I wonder if I need a model release for this kind of street photography? --Richard

profbowman Loc: Harrisonburg, VA, USA

I am not always sure whether my difficulty with the Catha algorithm is because I am human or because i am not a very good robot. ---Richard

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

I wonder, is your photo listed in the "Street Photography" category?

geonque Loc: Kitsap Co., WA

Sounds like a category for stuff that no one looking at the proofs would buy. Data miners need millions of images, and are very unlikely to pay much for any single photo. Shutterstock can probably make some money, but it is unlikely that the photographer will. The only point in buying photos for training is to avoid potential copyright infringement issues you get when you just scrape the internet for material, and most of these services are already doing well with the stuff they have stolen for free.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA