Adobe has integrated AI into its flagship Photoshop, amid fears of job losses and a spike in faked images. As tech companies continue to unleash tools offering users the ability to create fake images, synthetic audio and video, even policymakers are stumped.
In a beta release, Adobe unveiled a Generative Fill, bringing its AI capabilities directly into design workflows.
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The news comes as the company looks at integrating AI into its creative products, especially with Firefly, a new family creative generative model introduced in March this year.
Firefly soars
Since its launch six weeks ago, Adobe Firefly has become one of the company’s most successful beta launches, with beta users generating over 100 million assets.
According to VentureBeat, Firefly is the only AI service that generates commercially viable, professional quality content, and is designed to be embedded directly into creators’ workflows.
The company says in addition to generating images from text prompts, Generative Fill automatically matches the perspective, lighting and styles of images while users can add, extend or remove newly-generated content in generative layers, allowing for rapid iteration.
Dream bigger with us. ✨ Introducing Generative Fill in the @Photoshop (beta) app – a new magical way to create extraordinary imagery from a simple text prompt, powered by #AdobeFirefly. Learn more: https://t.co/9AuYivfduj pic.twitter.com/tq21V4Szpe
— Adobe (@Adobe) May 23, 2023
Maria Yap, vice president of digital imaging at Adobe, said that by bringing Firefly capabilities directly into Photoshop, users who felt nervous about using generative AI would realize they remain fully in control of their creativity – that it is simply another tool in their arsenal.
“Our customers are excited because Firefly is a commercially safe model, using high quality images, making sure that there is no copyright infringement in the creation process.”
Not all rosy
Using the Generative Fill feature will enable Photoshop users to add to, expand or remove unwanted items from images using text prompts similar to those used by Dall-E and Midjourney, such as long-haired dachshund with long flowing rainbow hair.
Since the launch of image generating AI, many artists have expressed concerns that the AI has been trained on artworks under copyright.
There are also growing fears AI tools may accelerate misinformation, giving lawmakers sleepless nights as they try to regulate the sector.
Recently, a fake image that depicted an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington made the rounds on social media, causing a brief dip on the stock market.
Prime example of the dangers in the pay-to-verify system: This account, which tweeted a (very likely AI-generated) photo of a (fake) story about an explosion at the Pentagon, looks at first glance like a legit Bloomberg news feed. pic.twitter.com/SThErCln0p
— Andy Campbell (@AndyBCampbell) May 22, 2023
Earlier, fake images of former President Donald Trump scuffling with police went viral. This is in addition to an AI-generated image of the Pope wearing a stylish puffer jacket which went viral on social media.
Overall, the AI sector is booming and the tech’s ability to mimic reality has raised concerns about how to regulate it. Additionally, there have been rising concerns over the use of AI in the art industry, with some artists welcoming the technology as an industry enabler while others call for restrictions.
Adobe has indicated the company has tried to set the standard, with content credentials acting as a marker on images that have been generated using AI.
According to The Guardian, Adobe has 1,000 members of its authenticity initiative and has made the technology available since 2019.
An olive branch for small businesses
Adobe has also sought to avoid “abuse” of its AI tools by training Firefly on over 100 million images from its library, as well as images in the public domain where copyright has expired.
The tool is expected to make it easier for small businesses and creative designers to do their own graphic designs, although it is said to speed up the process rather than replacing graphic designers altogether, according to Adobe Asia-Pacific director of digital media and strategy Chandra Sinnathamby.
“The whole idea is, how do we help that creative accelerate, and that content creation at scale, with precision and speed?” he said.
Users welcomed the announcement, describing it as “incredible” and one “step forward.”
“An incredible addition to my hybrid AI workflow!” said Ingmar.
Other new additions to Adobe Photoshop beta include around 30 new adjustment Presets – filters that users can apply to an image to achieve a particular look and feel.
There’s also a new Remove Tool, a brush that uses Adobe Sensei AI to quickly eliminate unwanted objects, saving potentially hours of manual work.
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