Head of Global Production, Shutterstock
Search every verified Aiden Darne interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Aiden Darné, Global Head of Shutterstock Studios, has described the company's data licensing business as a significant growth area, stating that large technology companies pay Shutterstock between $25 million and $50 million a day for metadata associated with its images. He noted that this provides a copyright-cleared alternative to scraping the internet for machine learning data. Darné also discussed Shutterstock's approach to generative AI, including the launch of a text-to-3D platform in partnership with Nvidia. He said the company is focused on "ethical AI," aiming to ensure representation and diversity in generated content and to compensate contributors whose work is used for machine learning. Darné has highlighted the role of Shutterstock Studios in producing custom content for brands, such as a campaign for the pharmaceutical company ViiV that created new, documentary-style stock assets of people living with HIV. He has also discussed the use of virtual production technology, including XR stages, for commercial workcars, and described the company's acquisition of GIPHY as part of its expansion beyond its core stock content business.
“We describe this generative AI boom as there's going to be some Heroes and zeros; the perception is that Shutterstock will be on the Zero side in that it's going to probably eat up a lot of the stock content business.”
“Overnight we became a very lucrative data provider for very large technology companies to pay us between 25 to 50 million dollars a day for our metadata that's assigned to each image.”
“Rather than a large tech company going to scrape the internet for their computer learning with images, that's not going to create copyright infringements; that was a very different proposition for us now as a business to go to market providing all that data.”
“We acquired Gify recently, and our studio business, which I head up, along with our data business, are the growth engines of Shutterstock beyond the core stock content business.”
“We launched the very first text to 3D platform in partnership with Nvidia, allowing users to create perfect 3D renderings from text prompts for use in campaigns and commercials.”
“We acknowledge Wall Street probably sees Shutterstock as a zero out of the heroes, but we have a whole side of the business that is growing because of advancements and all these opportunities.”
“It's incredibly important not just to prevent manipulation but to ensure there's enough representation and diversity in the content we put forward, avoiding generic white people in every kind of search in text to image, text to 3D, or text to video.”
“We are at the forefront of ensuring that all of our content is ethical AI, and definitely ensuring that our contributors are getting paid as well, the photographers that are making the content that's being used for machine learning.”
“The accessibility of the technology is the most important part to all of this — for it to be able to be used across all different types of use cases for all different types of creators. Virtual production sounds scary and massive and expensive but it also covers simple AR and VR activations and much smaller types of th...”
“It's already being used by individual creators, and to Justin's point, where it will go further is for it to be even more accessible.”
“Shutterstock Studios produce the TV and digital campaign for Shutterstock, our parent and big brother company, and it was a fantastic brief. We were part of the wonderful creative team that were actively looking for new ideas of how we can push and change and grow the perception of what Shutterstock is and what we're c...”
“Shutterstock Studios is a really key part of that new service and new offering within Shutterstock because it means that we're so much more than just our ready to use assets, but of course that's the meat of the business.”
“Everything on the background that you're going to see, and the music and everything, is comprised from Shutterstock content. We use incredibly innovative XR virtual production technology which they shot on The Mandalorian. We shot this in London and so we created this incredible tapestry and world of just absolute imag...”
“All the elements you need for your next big breakthrough are all on one platform, whether you're building websites or designing social ads. Turning your ideas into achievements has never been easier.”
“It also speaks to the power of our archive and of all of our stock assets. It was such an amazing editorial asset as well. It was such an amazing experience to go through that full amount of, I think it's 300 million, 200 million images, almost 20 million video clips and all of the TurboSquid as well.”
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Aiden Darné shares an example of an advertising spot created by Shutterstock Studios, which is one of his favorites.
Aiden Darné talks about how footage or still images shot by Shutterstock Studios can be released on the main Shutterstock ...
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