Why Does Artificial Intelligence Think These Photos Suck?

On average, Everypixel's Aesthetics tool rated these photos 15.93% out of a possible 100%. I don't know how this machine-learning program is trained to judge what makes a photo good or bad (the website doesn't say), but we can guess that it analyzes the visual characteristics of a photo.

This may not be as useful as it sounds.

Even if an image's artistic merit could be reduced to some objective score, the typical stock photo buyer isn't in the market for art: He or she is trying to drive business value.

What Makes a Stock Photo "Good"

A good stock photo communicates a complex concept in a simple way.

Someone cradling their face in their hand inside of a waiting room is depicting boredom. Light at the end of a tunnel depicts hope. An arrow sticking in a bullseye depicts accuracy.

Visual solutions like these are salable worldwide because the concepts are universal. Technical factors like composition, exposure and focus are prerequisites, but not the key selling point.

Can AI Predict Bestselling Stock Photos?

Artificial intelligence is good at extracting literal information from a photo. Show a neural network enough pictures of cats and it will learn to recognize cats. But, show a computer a picture of a cat with pink hair and a spiked collar and it won't recognize individuality.

Stock photo agencies should consider investing in AI to improve their search engine algorithms. At heart, this means mapping photos to concepts.

Google did something similar when it overhauled its algorithm in 2013. Project "Hummingbird" downplayed "keywords" in favor of context, concepts and the relationship between them. However, imagery is more complicated to analyze than text.

Until the day comes when machines can understand the meaning of an image, stock photographers must rely on keywords to impart those meanings.

Stock Photos That Sell

I'd be rich if all of my stock photos performed as well as the ones featured in this article.

The stock photographers who make the most money are able to use visual trends (like 80s fashion, pastels and minimalism) to depict conceptual trends. Visual trends change often, but some concepts will always remain relevant: