Photographers Can Protect Their Images Against AI With Overlai App

AI is among the most significant concerns for photographers. Whether worried about AI taking their jobs or AI models being trained illegally using their work, the technology is at the forefront of many’s minds. Enter Overlai, an app that aims to keep photographers’ work safe from AI scraping.

Some AI companies “scrape” content across the web to train generative artificial intelligence models, including text-to-image, text-to-video, and text-to-audio tools. Overlai isn’t the first to try to deal with this problem, but its solution is slightly different, employing a photographer-focused multi-prong approach.

PetaPixel has reported on data poisoning technology, like Nightshade, that hides pixels in content that utterly befuddles current AI scrapers. Overlai, as evidenced by its name, which combines “overlay” and “AI,” opts for a related but more comprehensive defense.

How Overlai Works

Overlai aims to protect people’s images by using an invisible watermark on top of the image while simultaneously creating an “immutable record of your metadata,” including a “Do Not Train” assertion on the blockchain. The watermark links back to this newly created record.

Similar to something like Nightshade, Overlai’s invisible watermark, combined with “patented technology,” can also disrupt AI datasets. Overlai calls its invisible disruption “Random Poisoning Technology,” adding that it hopes to deter companies from unauthorized use of digital assets by disrupting datasets.

Overlai notes that the core of its protection “starts with Distributed Ledger Technology, decentralized storage, automated dataset opt-outs and invisible watermarks…” The opt-out process is critical, and Overlai has worked with the C2PA, which includes major AI players like OpenAI, Google, TikTok, and Microsoft, to standardize dataset training opt-outs.

“As general members of the C2PA, we are currently helping build the future for how all of these companies view, organize, and process data,” Overlai explains.

Founded and Built With Photographers

Throughout its development, Overlai has worked very closely with numerous professional photographers, including Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Luke Neumann, Alex Dolgov, Chase Teron, Daisy Gilardini, Pie Aerts, Michelle Valberg, and Daniel Kordan, among many others.

“After over a year of hard work and collaboration, Overlai is officially live on the Apple App Store,” Nicklen says on Instagram. “You can now protect your photos before you upload them online to keep companies from using your work to train AI without your consent.”

“I have been a photographer working to protect nature for the last three decades and I know firsthand how much patience, dedication, and hard work this profession requires,” the professional photographer continues. “As we navigate a new era of AI, protecting the rights and legacies of creators and fellow human beings should always come first — not big companies looking profit off our work without us having a say.”

“Please join me and @overlai.app in standing for the rights of our fellow human artists,” Nicklen concludes.

Using Overlai is straightforward. Photographers can download the app for iOS and start uploading images. Once a photo is uploaded and processed, it has all the promised protections against AI scraping and features Overlai’s Distributed Ledger Technology, which means it can also be verified using Overlai’s accompanying verification tool. The verify tool can also be used to find authorship, C2PA, and EXIF data for other images that Overlai hasn’t processed.

Development Remains Active

It is worth noting that the Android app and the Adobe desktop plug-in are in active development. Users can sign up to be alerted when they’re available on the Overlai homepage.

“Overlai is an essential part of any photographer’s workflow to protect their assets from unauthorized AI use,” Overlai explains. “Overlai is the first and only software application that creates a digital public record for the ownership of your files and the metadata associated with that file.”

Those with many photos may want to consider precisely how they want to protect their work, as Overlai is not infinitely free. Each user starts with a free plan, which allows them to upload three images per month and unused credits aren’t carried over. Currently, there is a special promotion where users can upload 30 photos in their first month, with additional credit available for referring friends and colleagues to the app. Further, the size limit for an individual photo upload is 20 megabytes.

While it is clear that additional credits will come with a fee, the cost has yet to be disclosed. In response to a question about cost on Instagram, Overlai said, “Oh no there’s going to be different paid tiers all super affordable — the free version eventually will have ads playing during the protection phase to pay for our server costs. We are just sorting our tiers and credit packages you can get. Very low cost to [the] user — thanks for asking.”

On the topic of responding to queries, the company has been reactive in its first few days of public access. Friend of PetaPixel Andrew Studer noted that the app’s original terms of service text were concerning, including a section that suggested Overlai had unlimited and unrestricted rights to distribute, reuse, or sell people’s submitted work. However, Overlai quickly replied that the inclusion of the troubling text was an error and that it had already been removed, although the outdated text may still be appearing for some users as the changes filter through different platforms.

“It was a massive error, literally the opposite of what we are doing,” Overlai replied. “Thank you Andrew Studer for the flag.”

The most likely explanation is that Overlai used some boilerplate legal text for its terms of use, which is very common. While the initial mixup proved jarring, Overlai quickly resolved the problem.

Overlai Is Available Now

Overlai is still in an early access period, with only the iOS app currently available for photographers to upload photos. The Android app and Adobe plug-in should arrive soon; pricing information will presumably follow.

There is undoubtedly a dire need for platforms like Overlai, and the team has a lot of respected, talented photographers on board, including some who helped co-found the app. AI is not going anywhere, so protections will only become more critical to those who want them.

Additional information is available on Overlai’s website, and the app is available to download for free from the Apple App Store.

Image credits: Overlai