The rise of generative AI means that huge archives of photographs and videos are suddenly valuable with the current situation being compared to a gold rush, but which platforms are licensing their content to large tech firms for the purposes of training AI models?
Image and video hosting website Photobucket is reportedly in talks with generative artificial intelligence companies to license its content for the purposes of training algorithms.
We exist in a constantly churning sea of content: there were 1.4 trillion photos taken in 2021 and an estimated 1.6 trillion shutter buttons will be pressed this year. With so many taken, where is the best place to share photos?
Since 2003, the popular photo hosting service Photobucket has been letting users upload and host images for free on their servers. They have over 10 billion images stored by 100 million registered users. But now they're going to start charging, and that means billions of images around the Web are now broken.
Photobucket is quietly one of the 800-pound gorillas of photo sharing. First launched back in 2003, the nearly-10-year-old service boasts a staggering 100 million users, putting it in second place behind the picture sharing juggernaut, Facebook. As the demise of MySpace showed, however, the mantra for online services needs to constantly be "innovate or die".
In an effort to stay hip in the crowded market of online photo sites, Photobucket has begun rolling out the first major redesign in its 10-year history.