Shutterstock's composition photo search is powered by AI

Fresh off its AI-powered tool for countering watermark removal from photos, Shutterstock is using machine learning for something else. "This tool allows users to specify one or more keywords, or to search for copy space, and arrange them spatially on a canvas to reflect the specific layout of the image they are seeking," a press release reads. "The patent pending tool uses a combination of machine vision, natural language processing and state of the art information retrieval techniques to find strong matches against complex spatially aware search criteria." So, dragging "pen" to the lower left corner of the search box, and "desk" to the upper right corner will come back with photos where the pen is in the lower left of the frame, and a desk is in the upper right. At least that's how it's supposed to work in theory.