- According to Stock AI founder Danny Postma, 20,000 people used StockAI as of September 30. However, of those, only 16 paid for AI material.
- Postma wants to continue improving his platform.
StockAI offers only AI-generated images in typical stock photo style. The website advertises that all images are originals that are not available in any other database.
It was bound to happen: Established image platforms like Getty Images are removing AI-generated motifs from their portfolios, primarily so as not to upset the clientele that currently supplies them. This creates a gap in the market that the stock photo database StockAI, which specializes in AI images, now wants to fill.
If it doesn't fit, it's generated to fit
The website advertises thousands of AI-generated stock photos sorted into categories such as food, nature, or portraits. Low-resolution images can be downloaded for free, while high-resolution 4K versions are available for a fee. Prices start at $10 for 5 credits. A monthly flat rate with unlimited generations (see below) costs $34.
All downloaded images may be used without attribution and other permissions for all applications - commercial and private. There are no additional fees. StockAI also offers the full sale of an AI original, so you own the image.
🤖❤️📸
StockAI is an AI-powered stock photos library & generator.
Find exactly the image you need. And if it doesn't exist, we'll create it for you instantly. pic.twitter.com/u5FyVP0Ixt
— StockAI 📸 (@_StockAI) September 26, 2022
In addition to many pre-generated images, the platform offers AI functions for even more image diversity: If no motif fits, a motif matching the search query can be generated for a fee. Variants of existing motifs can also be generated.
Creating a new image takes about ten seconds and is available behind a paywall. According to StockAI founder Danny Postma, the feature was originally available directly, but the Internet did what the Internet does.
Alright, I and my spouse are done looking and paying for everyone's sick fantasies.
Just made @_StockAI image generation require a subscription. People on the internet are crazy.😅
— Danny Postma (@dannypostmaa) September 26, 2022
Postma previously founded and sold the AI startup "Headlime" for automated marketing copy.
Stable Diffusion provides the images
The image selection in StockAI is not perfect. You can often spot AI-specific errors in the images, such as deformations of people and objects.
Love how you built anticipation for this launch and the product looks amazing. Congrats ?
I have some minor feedback:- some of the people look a bit weird / fake (whats wrong with the mouths!?). The other images look great. See attached pic.twitter.com/vWaxEfXYXx
- Simon (@simonda1ey) September 26, 2022
According to Postma, the review of individual images is currently done manually and is carried out by his wife. She filters out inappropriate images. There is an automatic filter for nude images, but it is not always correct. Users can also flag questionable images.
The legal texts list OpenAI and StabilityAI as third-party providers for AI image generation. StabilityAI is the startup behind the open-source image AI Stable Diffusion. On Twitter, StockAI creator Danny Postma confirms that image generation is done through Stable Diffusion.
Postma's idea isn't new, just more comprehensive: in 2019, the website Generated Photos already specialized in AI-generated stock portraits with thorough quality control. The company created the training dataset for its portrait AI using self-taken portrait photos.
At that time, GA networks were used for image generation, while today's image AI relies on the more efficient and versatile diffusion technique introduced commercially by DALL-E 2.
