Jessica Watkins Becomes First Black Woman to Lead Crew to Orbit
October 7, 2026
Grammy Award-winning rapper and entrepreneur Tip “T.I.” Harris has invested in Pocstock, a Black-owned global media and licensing company.
Founded in Newark, New Jersey, in 2019 by CEO Steve Jones, Pocstock creates and licenses visual content and datasets. Its goal is to improve how communities of color are represented across media, technology, and AI.
The company also works closely with individual creators, helping them retain ownership of their work while earning compensation through licensing. The investment amount was not disclosed.
Related post: Idris Elba and Google Launch $1M AI Initiative For African Creators
What is Pocstock?
Pocstock is one of the world’s most inclusive stock media collections. With more than 10 million assets, its library includes royalty-free stock photos, videos, and illustrations of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous people, as well as LGBTQIA+ people and people with disabilities. Users can filter the collection by ethnicity, skin tone, and cultural context. The metadata explains cultural nuances that would otherwise be overlooked. This includes mentions of religious attire, family structures, regional settings, and non-Western gestures. The company counts more than 1200 clients and partners, including Google, Adobe, Shutterstock, and Canva,
“Authenticity cannot be faked, and our stories cannot be told properly without us in the driver’s seat,” Harris said. “Pocstock is capturing the positive aspects of our culture. I am incredibly proud to support a team that is purposefully changing the visual landscape and showing the world exactly who we are.”
Related post: Black Animated Series Gracie’s Corner Lands Disney+ and Disney Jr. Deal
Refacing the Future
Pocstock licenses photos to global brands and ad agencies, but it doesn’t stop there. Its other clients are technology companies. For businesses building large language models and training generative AI chatbots, inclusive datasets are essential for reducing algorithmic bias. This need became obvious when David Mesfin, vice president and creative director at INNOCEAN USA, used AI to help him with his documentary about Black surfers. He discovered that AI image generators couldn’t produce an authentic image of a Black surfer. The models generated white surfers with darkened skin. This was a prime example of how AI is only as good as the data it is trained on.
This doesn’t stop with Black surfers; Pocstock argues that AI doesn’t see the world as it actually is. For example, Asian Americans make up 22% of U.S. dentists. However, when AI generates an image of a dentist, an Asian person only appears 2.3% of the time. When asked to generate an image of a judge, a woman appears only 3% of the time. Yet 34% of judges are women, and many are women of color. This shows how AI erasure compounds across both race and gender.
Pocstock partnered with INNOCEAN USA on an initiative called Refacing the Future. Along with creative agencies, they hosted photoshoots with photographers to capture overlooked communities and feed culturally accurate imagery into AI training pipelines. The initiative produced more than 100,000 pieces of original media meant to reduce algorithmic bias.
“If AI is going to accurately represent us, it should learn about us directly from us,” said Jones.
Related post: Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz Partner with Bonhams to Launch Artist Royalty Program
Putting Creators First
At the backbone of Pocstock’s work is a global community of creators. The media platform has a network of over 3000 photographers, videographers, production companies, and influencers across more than 65 countries. Pocstock champions diverse creatives by providing a platform for them to monetize their work while still retaining ownership rights.
The licensing platform allows creators to focus solely on production while it handles complex workflows including metadata tagging, cultural annotation, and digital payment distribution. Most importantly, Pocstock focuses on high-value licensing. It offers competitive contributor royalties. Royalties run from 25% to 50% depending on a contributor’s tier. On-demand images typically sell for $50 and $475 per license. This means a single license can pay about $12.50 to $237.50.
“Our goal is to help build a more responsible and representative data layer for AI while bringing creator communities along as the technology evolves,” Jones said. “We want people of color participating as producers, owners, and economic contributors – not simply consumers.”
With this recent investment from Harris, the platform has a new champion backing its mission.
Main image: Tip “T.I.” Harris via Wikimedia Commons.
