Adobe

The third generation of Firefly generative AI — which Adobe claims can provide more accurate and photorealistic results than its predecessor — can be accessed via the Firefly web app.

This includes the Structure Reference and Style Reference tools in the Text to Image module, and a new Generative Expand feature for increasing the aspect ratio of images in the Generative Fill module.

As we saw in the beta release this new version of Adobe Express packs the same creative, editing, and generative AI features that desktop users have into an iOS and Android app.

It’s free to use, but to access Firefly and the full suite of editing tools you’ll need a $10 per month Premium membership.

Adobe calls its Firefly model “commercially safe” because it’s trained on Adobe’s stock library. However, Bloomberg reports that around 5 percent of the images in its training database are actually generated by other AI models.

Kate Middleton is now claiming she likes to dabble in photo editing, just like those of us who don’t have a large professional staff employed just to maintain one’s image.

I guess we’re supposed to infer she edited yesterday’s badly ‘shopped photo herself, and if that’s the case, there’s a few Photoshop tutorials I can point her towards.

First, Adobe’s embrace of AI though Firefly made its stock shoot up. Then, AI didn’t add enough to its bottom line for investors, and OpenAI’s Sora tanked Adobe’s stock price.

Investors don’t really know how to view AI, and 2024 may be when reality sets in. Adobe’s first quarter earnings are expected next week.

That’s according to a new Bloomberg report, detailing how Adobe concentrated its efforts to build Firefly, the company’s own “commercially safe” generative AI model used in tools like Photoshop, following the success of rival tools like Midjourney.

Analysts now anticipate that Adobe may be one of the first big tech companies to actually profit from AI. Meanwhile, Adobe Stock contributors who helped train Firefly, potentially unknowingly, receive annual payouts that are as low as $70.

Available in english for both free and premium Adobe Express users, the AI-powered TikTok Creative Assistant add-on can write scripts and provide insights into what topics and hashtags are trending on the video-sharing platform, alongside design templates and editing features like the free TikTok video creator.

Once a video has been produced, users can schedule or publish content to TikTok without leaving the Express platform.

Remember the animated fabric that Adobe unveiled at its MAX 2023 event? Well, now it’s been used in an actual, wearable garment by Christian Cowan.

The Primrose dress was revealed at the designer’s show at New York Fashion Week, created using 1,264 laser-cut polymer dispersed liquid crystal “petals.” The fact it happens to look like badass scale mail is just a happy bonus.

9News Melbourne aired the altered image shown below of a member of Victoria’s Parliament, Georgie Purcell.

In a statement, 9News director Hugh Nailon said that when the picture was resized, “automation by Photoshop created an image that was not consistent with the original.” However, Adobe maintains (via NYT and the Guardian) “Any changes to this image would have required human intervention and approval.”

So what do you think happened?

According to Bloomberg, Adobe won’t be reviving its XD software that was effectively killed during the company’s failed attempt to acquire Figma’s similar set of product design tools. Adobe says it’s open to finding new product design partners and has “no plans to further invest” in XD, though support for existing users is still available.

Adobe doesn’t say, but it could develop new software entirely, like the unnamed whiteboarding project it previously canceled.

It turns out the “third-party vendor” Wacom sourced its suspicious campaign imagery from is likely Adobe Stock, though none of the now-deleted stock images were tagged as AI-generated.

It’s little wonder artists feel betrayed if the creative-focused companies that have supported them for decades can’t even identify poor-quality AI images from authentic human-made art.

Adobe has been cooperating with the FTC since June 2022, it says in an SEC filing reported on by Bloomberg this week. The company warns that “the defense or resolution of this matter could involve significant monetary costs or penalties and could have a material impact on our financial results and operations.”

Adobe has unveiled the next generation of its Spectrum design system — the framework that governs Adobe app design, akin to Google’s Material You.

Spectrum 2 is intended to make apps more approachable and accessible, with key design components having first previewed in Adobe Express. The Spectrum 2 updates are first set to roll out across Adobe web products in “early 2024.”

Bloomberg reports the creative software giant is putting together a proposal to appease regulators currently blocking its $20 billion bid for product design platform Figma.

This may include Adobe divesting itself from its own product design application, Adobe XD, and promising not to lock Figma into Adobe’s Creative Cloud product bundle. Adobe has until December 19th and February 5th to respectively soothe concerns raised by UK and EU regulators.

Over on MKBHD’s The Studio, David Imel talked about the Leica M11-P. Or, more accurately, he used it to talk about Content Credentials, which the $9,000-plus camera attaches to photos as they’re taken so they can be verified through Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).

It’s a good look at CAI and its potential benefits to the media using the first-ever camera to participate in an initiative intended to help onlookers identify real-world images in a sea of AI-generated ones.