Adobe Firefly Impresses All With ‘Ethical’ AI Art—But Not Adobe Stock Creators

Adobe has managed to pretty much rise above the debate about unethical artificial intelligence use with Firefly, its own answer to the growing wave of AI art generators. The company reassures users that the tool is respectful of creators’ rights, as its technology is trained using openly-licensed content, public-domain images, and royalty-free Adobe Stock resources. As such, all results generated on Firefly are deemed commercially-safe.

This friendlier approach has been a welcome change for many, leading Adobe’s shares to soar after it presented a cheerful fiscal-year outlook earlier this month. The creative technology giant said “the new era of generative AI” is to thank for the optimistic results.

Unfortunately, it’s a solution that only pleases most, but not everybody. Adobe Stock contributors have been caught off-guard by how their work is being used to drive the Firefly tool.

In Adobe’s latest Stock Contributor Agreement, it notes that users will grant the company “a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, fully-paid, and royalty-free license” to use, reproduce, distribute, modify their work, including for “developing new features and services.”

Talking to VentureBeat in an interview, one contributor, who says he has uploaded 2,000 images onto Adobe Stock, laments that the firm is “using our IP” to compete with the community. The long-time member says he has been using Adobe products since he was 14.

Another artist recounts the shift to generative AI came unprecedented, since the technology wasn’t a thing when contributors first joined the platform years ago. As such, no one would have thought twice about feeding AI when they consistently added images to the royalty-free library to make residual revenue.

Another side effect is that customers are now downloading fewer organic Adobe Stock assets, now that they’re creating their own artwork or purchasing generative images that have flooded the site. As per the publication, Firefly beta users have produced over 200 million works from the tool, while Photoshop users have churned out 150 million images with the help of Firefly.

Affected creatives say they wish Adobe had notified them about this part of its policy in advance, or that it had given them the choice to opt out of their unwanted participation in the training database early on.

In response, Adobe comments that it is looking at generative AI as another avenue for creators to make money. A spokesperson stresses to VentureBeat that Firefly is still in beta (in an earlier article, we noted that all images generated with Firefly beta can’t be used for commercial purposes yet).

During this period, the company will actively engage in discussions with creators to ensure its platform prioritizes the community, the representative explains.

“We hear the artists’ concerns,” adds Adobe. “We are also hearing a great deal of excitement for what these new tools can mean in terms of their productivity, and the creativity it can unlock for creators of any skill level.”

Separately, the company reveals on its website that it is still contemplating how to properly compensate Adobe Stock creators.

“We are developing a compensation model for Stock contributors, and we will share the details of this model when Firefly exits beta,” acknowledges Adobe.

“No, there is no option to opt-out of data set training for content submitted to Stock,” it adds. “However, Adobe is continuing to explore the possibility of an opt-out.”

[via VentureBeat and Dexerto, cover photo 272867032 © RobertWei | Dreamstime.com]