Shutterstock, one of the internet's biggest sources of stock photos and illustrations, is now offering its customers the option to generate their own AI images. In October, the company announced a partnership with OpenAI, the creator of the wildly popular and controversial DALL-E AI tool. Now, the results of that deal are in beta testing and available to all paying Shutterstock users. The new platform is available in "every language the site offers," and comes included with customers' existing licensing packages, according to a press statement from the company. And, according to Gizmodo's own test, every text prompt you feed Shutterstock's machine results in four images, ostensibly tailored to your request.

The image above was created via Stable Diffusion with the prompt "lawyers in suits fighting robots with lasers in a futuristic, superhero style." Looks like Matthew Butterick and the Joseph Saveri Law Firm are going to have a busy year! The same folks who filed the class action against GitHub and Microsoft related to Copilot and Codex a couple of months ago, have filed another one against Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney related to Stable Diffusion. The crux of the complaint is around Stability AI and their Stable Diffusion product, but Midjourney and DeviantArt enter the picture because they have generative AI products that incorporate Stable Diffusion. DeviantArt also has some claims lobbed directly at them via a subclass because they allowed the nonprofit, Large-Scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network's (LAION), to incorporate the art work submitted to their service into a large public dataset of 400 million images and captions.

On Dec. 13, 2018, Richard Branson stood in the Mojave Desert, eyes fixed skyward as he witnessed the culmination of a lifelong dream: His space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, had sent an aircraft into suborbital space. For Branson, the launch was not merely proof of concept for his latest business venture. It signaled that humanity was on the edge of a fundamental breakthrough. "Today we have shown that Virgin Galactic can open space to the world," he declared. Four days later, the prominent philosopher Todd May published a short article in the Stone, a philosophy series run through the New York Times opinion section. "Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?" asked readers to consider the possibility that the demise of humanity might be morally desirable.

Soon after ChatGPT broke the internet, it sparked an all-too-familiar question for new technologies: What can it do for education? Many feared it would worsen plagiarism and further damage an already decaying humanism in the academy, while others lauded its potential to spark creativity and handle mundane educational tasks. Of course, ChatGPT is just one of many advances in artificial intelligence that have the capacity to alter pedagogical practices. The allure of AI-powered tools to help individuals maximize their understanding of academic subjects (or more effectively prepare for exams) by offering them the right content, in the right way, at the right time for them has spurred new investments from governments and private philanthropies. There is reason to be excited about such tools, especially if they can mitigate barriers to a higher quality or life--like reading proficiency disparities by race, which the NAACP has highlighted as a civil rights issue.

The latest U.S. lawsuit against Google compounds the legal issues the company faces worldwide while broadening the scope of the government's allegations around the tech giant's online advertising business. The suit also comes as Google faces one of the most competitive environments for its core business in recent memory, with the rise of apps such as TikTok and emerging artificial-intelligence programs fracturing the attention of internet users. Last week, Google completed its largest layoffs in company history, signaling it feels pressure to cut costs.

If you find a photo in an article, it probably came from Shutterstock, the largest source of online stock images. Recently, it opened access to AI-generated pictures. The new feature came after the company partnered with OpenAI, the creator of the popular AI image creator DALL-E. It is available to all users with paid Shutterstock subscriptions in "every language the site offers." Also, they do not have to worry about potential intellectual property issues.

Japan's internet watchdog can request instructional posts related to murder, guns and explosives be removed from March, police said Thursday, as authorities respond to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's suspected killer using information found online to build weapons. The National Police Agency said by adding to the types of content that can be requested for removal by internet service providers, it aims to prevent crimes before they occur. To strengthen its online surveillance, the agency said it will also consider using artificial intelligence to analyze social media posts. This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software. Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.

Joshua Browder, the CEO of New York startup DoNotPay, recently announced that his company's AI will represent a defendant fighting a traffic ticket in the courtroom on February 22nd. "[H]istory will be made," Browder wrote in his tweet. "DoNotPay A.I will whisper in someone's ear exactly what to say. We will release the results and share more after it happens," he added. We may never know how the "robot lawyer" will fare in court, though, because a few days later, Browder announced that DoNotPay is postponing its court case after he received threats of jail time from state bar prosecutors if he goes through with his plan.

A "robot" lawyer powered by artificial intelligence will be the first of its kind to help a defendant fight a traffic ticket in court next month. Joshua Browder, CEO of DoNotPay, said the company's AI-creation runs on a smartphone, listens to court arguments and formulates responses for the defendant. The AI lawyer tells the defendant what to say in real-time, through headphones. The robot lawyer will take its first case on February 22, Browder announced on Twitter last week. "On February 22nd at 1.30PM, history will be made. For the first time ever, a robot will represent someone in a US courtroom. DoNotPay A.I will whisper in someone's ear exactly what to say. We will release the results and share more after it happens. He did not disclose the name of the client or the court. On February 22nd at 1.30PM, history will be made. For the first time ever, a robot will represent someone in a US courtroom. DoNotPay A.I will whisper in someone's ear exactly what to say. We will release the results and share more after it happens. The artificial intelligence firm has already used AI-generated form letters and chatbots to help people secure refunds for in-flight Wifi that didn't work, as well as to lower bills and dispute parking tickets, among other issues, according to Browder. All told the company has relied on these AI templates to win more than 2 million customer service disputes and court cases on behalf of individuals against institutions and organizations, he added. It has raised $27.7 million from tech-focused venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Crew Capital. "In the past year, AI tech has really developed and allowed us to go back and forth in real time with corporations and governments," he told CBS MoneyWatch of recent advances. "We spoke live [with companies and customer service reps] to lower bills with companies; and what we're doing next month is try to use the tech in a courtroom for the first time." If the robot lawyer loses the case, DoNotPay will cover any fines, Browder said. Some courts allow defendants to wear hearing aids, some versions of which are bluetooth-enabled. That's how Browder determined that DoNotPay's technology can legally be used in this case. Some states require that all parties consent to be recorded, which rules out the possibility of a robot lawyer entering many courtrooms. Of the 300 cases DoNotPay considered for a trial of its robot lawyer, only two were feasible. "It's within the letter of the law, but I don't think anyone could ever imagine this would happen," Browder said. "It's not in the spirit of law, but we're trying to push things forward and a lot of people can't afford legal help.

Type in a prompt like "a chocolate bar riding a bicycle in the style of Picasso," and artificial intelligence tools including DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion can conjure an image for you in seconds. They do so by incorporating elements from the vast libraries of digitally available images and artwork from across the internet that they have been trained on. That question is at the heart of two new lawsuits. Last week, Seattle-based stock image giant Getty Images announced that it has initiated legal proceedings against Stability AI, the maker of Stable Diffusion. Getty alleges that the company has copied millions of its images and "[chosen] to ignore viable licensing options and long-standing legal protections in pursuit of their stand-alone commercial interests."