Shutterstock has expanded its partnership with OpenAI, an artificial research laboratory, to incorporate its text-to-image AI model Dall-E-2 directly into the online stock photography platform.

With this new development, users now will be able to generate images based on the criteria they type. 

"The media to express creativity are constantly evolving and expanding and we will ensure that the generative technology that drives innovation is grounded in ethical practices," Paul Hennessey, Shutterstock CEO said. 

Both organisations started working together in 2021. Shutterstock sold images and metadata critical to Dall-E-2's training to OpenAI. The firm has recently decided to pay the artists in exchange for their works being used to generate AI models. It is now planning to launch a fund in order to compensate the artists. 

"We’re excited for Shutterstock to offer DALL-E images to its customers as one of the first deployments through our API, and we look forward to future collaborations as artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of artists’ creative workflows," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said. 

Shutterstock's revenue in Q3 2022 increased 5 per cent to $204.1 million as compared to the same period in the previous fiscal. Its revenue increased 10 in Q3 2022, while income from operations increased 29 per cent to $28.7 million.

The company added that its revenue generated through its e-commerce sales channel increased 2 per cent as compared to the third quarter of 2021 to $124.6 million. This represented 61 per cent of its total revenue in Q3 2022. This e-commerce revenue growth was primarily driven by revenue generated from its acquisitions of PicMonkey and Pond5.