📚 Got followers? Get a book deal

Last year, Getty Images banned AI-generated content on its platform, citing potential legal concerns for customers.

Getty also sued Stability AI, accusing it of copying 12m+ of its photographs.

But now, Getty is getting into the game on its own terms, partnering with Nvidia on a text-to-image generator. Pricing will be based on prompt volume, separate from a standard subscription, per The Verge.

What’s different about Getty’s?

Getty’s editorial content includes photos of real people, places, and events; its creative section consists of stock imagery and illustrations. Getty’s model only trained on the latter, per MIT Technology Review.

That’s key because:

• The model won’t create bogus images of public figures or include brand logos — so, no pope in a Balenciaga jacket.
• Getty’s images are already licensed, and those who created them or appear in them have agreed to have their work train Getty’s AI.
• Thus, any content created with Getty’s model can be used commercially. Getty is also indemnifying its customers — meaning that, should legal challenges arise, Getty will be responsible.

Elsewhere…

… The legality surrounding AI-generated work remains in flux.

• A judge recently decided that work entirely generated by AI can’t be copyrighted.
• Authors including George R.R. Martin and Jodi Picoult have joined the Authors Guild in suing OpenAI, accusing its AI model of training on their novels.
• Three artists filed a class-action lawsuit against Midjourney, DeviantArt, and Stability AI, alleging their models illegally trained on their work.

Getty may be an image powerhouse with 477m+ assets, but being able to generate images for free threatens its subscription model. This move both protects Getty from getting left behind and its customers from all that legal murkiness.

Similarly, Photoshop maker Adobe’s new AI tool did not train on copyrighted materials either, and Adobe also promised indemnification for its customers.

Like many sites that deal in reviews, Yelp has been battling bogus ones for some time.

Since 2012, the review site has caught ~5k businesses paying people to post reviews on the site, per Engadget.

Now, it’s turning to the shame bell

For transparency, Yelp slaps an alert on business profiles where something weird is afoot. That includes businesses engaging in “compensated” reviews (i.e., paying for them) or “suspicious” behavior, such as multiple reviews coming from one IP address.

The company’s new index tracks all current and past compensated and suspicious activity alerts, and puts them online for anyone to see.

It’s not a particularly searchable database — it would probably be more useful as a spreadsheet than a list — but it’s something.

Why it matters

Fake reviews are rampant across the internet, and both companies and the FTC are desperate to stop them and restore consumer trust.

Last year, Amazon sued the admins of 10k+ Facebook groups, accusing them of soliciting bogus reviews.

The FTC took its first action against fake reviews in 2019, fining a supplement company $12.8m.

In June — and in the wake of generative AI — the FTC proposed additional penalties for businesses caught:

• Selling, obtaining, or buying fake reviews
• Repurposing real reviews
• Buying or selling fake social media indicators, such as followers or views

BTW: The Hustle’s Zachary Crockett once spent two weeks in Facebook’s fake Amazon community to figure out how it operated. Check it out here.

Book publishers — like today’s teachers — have a sneaking suspicion that consumers might be spending more time scrolling on social media than reading books.

So to reach new customers, traditional publishing houses are getting in on TikTok’s #booktok obsession and creating formal influencer programs:

• Simon & Schuster’s Simon Books Buddy program sends influencers free copies in exchange for posting reviews on social.
• The Random House Group Influencer Program lets influencers sample new titles monthly, though it doesn’t require posting in return.

And there are many more like those.

Influencers aren’t just promoting books…

… They’re writing them. DK, a division of Penguin Random House, is turning influencers into authors themselves.

Since 2021, DK’s influencer division has published six New York Times bestselling cookbooks authored by TikTok food creators.

And it doesn’t stop at publishing: DK offers influencers assistance, from pairing them with recipe testers and coordinating photoshoots to creating advertising strategies.

Plus, influencers are allegedly receiving book advances that are well into the six figures.

The next chapter of publishing…

… might look a little different.

While Mindy Kaling’s Mindy’s Book Studio, Questlove’s AUWA Books, and Zando have focused on imprints helmed by high-profile celebrities, the next wave of personality-driven publishing will be influencers.

Bindery, a startup that launched last month, will let influencers curate their own micro-imprints and select manuscripts from literary agencies to fund and publish.

“Tastemakers,” as the company calls them, will have paywalled, subscriber-only communities on the platform that offer things like author livestreams, early copies, and even inclusion in a book’s acknowledgements.

Influencers will take home 50% of their monthly subscription revenue and 25% of each book’s net earnings.

Now that’s a happy ending.