Adobe Paying for Videos, Images to Train AI Models

Adobe is reportedly paying artists and photographers to supply videos and images that will be used to train the company’s artificial intelligence models.

The company is using images from its own library of stock media but is paying contributors to fill in any gaps in the materials it has available, Bloomberg reported Thursday (April 11).

Adobe is paying between 6 cents and 16 cents for each photo and an average of $2.62 per minute for videos, according to the report.

The videos will be used to help develop an AI text-to-video generator that Adobe is developing, the report said. This will join the company’s existing tools that generate images and illustrations.

Adobe said it will release more information about its video-generating technology later this year, per the report.

The company has been rolling out generative AI features across its digital media, digital experience, and publishing and advertising product lines. It plans to add more in the coming months.

Its Firefly creative generative AI model has helped users generate more than 6.5 billion images, vectors, designs and text effects since its introduction in 2023.

“Early adopters like IBM are putting Firefly at the center of their content creation processes,” David Wadhwani, president of digital media business at Adobe, said in March during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “IBM used Adobe Firefly to generate 200 campaign assets and over 1,000 marketing variations in moments rather than months.”

Adobe’s offer to pay contributors for their videos and images comes at a time when some other companies have faced controversy over how they’ve used content to train their AI models.

For example, OpenAI has been at the center of discussions for its use of diverse web content in developing AI software like ChatGPT, DALL-E and Sora. OpenAI has also been sued by The New York Times, other publications and authors over its use of content to train its models.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told Bloomberg April 4 that while there is a lack of concrete evidence on whether OpenAI has used YouTube videos to enhance its video-generation AI software, any such use without permission would contravene the platform’s terms of service.

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.