NEW YORK, Feb 21 Reuters A responsible AI image generation startup backed by stock photo provider Getty Images has raised 24 million in a Series A funding round, including from top ad agency Publicis Groupe, it said on Wednesday.

Israelbased BRIA, which licenses more than a billion images from stock providers for its system, said in a press release that it would use the cash infusion to expand globally and build out texttovideo generation capabilities.

The investment, while small relative to others in the white hot AI space, makes BRIA an early test case in how licensing deals can provide a path forward in disputes raging over the use of copyrighted content to train generative AI models.

Music labels, artists and other content owners have pointed to licensing as a more palatable approach to generative AI, after big AI companies built their systems using content scraped off the open internet for free.

BRIA said its licenseonly approach heads off the risk of trademarks and other fraught elements appearing in its generated images, attracting customers in the advertising, marketing and media world including Publicis.

There is a way to do this that is both responsible and commercial, CEO Yair Adato told Reuters in an interview.

Getty, which has backed BRIA since 2022, has figured prominently in the disputes around training data.

Last year, Getty sued leading AI image generation company Stability AI for using its photos without a license, which it alleged was brazen…