On March 10, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to demand a new licensing framework for AI training. Across the Atlantic, private data brokers are raising tens of millions to license content directly. Both approaches claim to solve the same problem. Neither does. The Axel Voss resolution passed with 460 votesContinue Reading
Fifteen months ago, right here in Kaptur, I asked a simple question: who actually needs a video generation tool? Not movie makers. Not documentarians. Not the millions of people who already have one of the most powerful video-creation instruments ever invented: a phone in their pocket. My argument was straightforward:Continue Reading
The AI product imagery industry has a favorite word: efficiency. Every pitch deck, every tool landing page, every case study opens with the same promise: faster, cheaper, more. Photoroom will generate your lifestyle shots in seconds. Pebblely will give you 40 background variations before lunch. Adcreative.ai will instantly turn simpleContinue Reading
Eleven years ago, I coined a term. I called them the photo generation. The piece ran on Kaptur in April 2015, prompted by a Facebook study: 53% of US teens said Instagram helped define who they were, 63% used it to document their lives, and a third checked it beforeContinue Reading
India has implemented a new rule mandating media platforms to label AI-generated content and retain metadata, effective February 20. This regulation reflects a broader trend alongside similar policies in China and the EU, emphasizing the importance of metadata for compliance and authenticity. Platforms must adapt quickly to avoid penalties.Continue Reading
The promise is seductive: generate product photography in seconds, automate image editing at scale, produce marketing visuals without the overhead of traditional production. Generative AI tools for visual content have moved from experimental curiosity to operational necessity faster than most compliance frameworks can adapt. If your organizationContinue Reading
Cloudflare acquired Human Native on January 15, 2026. The London startup had built a marketplace connecting content owners with AI companies seeking training data. The deal completes an 18-month infrastructure build, but the strategic question remains: is Cloudflare operating a toll booth that charges for passage, a warehouse that aggregatesContinue Reading
You can listen to the article here ( ~ 15 minutes): For 150 years, photography’s power rested on a simple fact: cameras don’t explain, they describe. Now we’re building systems that do both, and the implications for everyone who creates, manages, or verifies visual content are just starting toContinue Reading
The End of Visual Evidence It’s a few years from now. A photo surfaces of something that matters: a protest, an accident, a natural disaster. You watch it. You feel something. You assume it’s fake. You scroll past. The photograph might be real. Someone might have captured a genuine momentContinue Reading
AI Everywhere, But Not All the Time Every October in San Francisco, where robot taxis are busily roaming the streets, something peculiar happens. The photography industry’s old guard—print manufacturers, stock agencies, software makers—sits down with its new blood: the brilliant engineers building AI-powered photo services, mobile apps, editing tools, andContinue Reading