Adobe Backlash [what hath AI wrought?]

It seems that Adobe has been receiving quite a bit of backlash against changes it’s made to its terms of service, changes having to do with Adobe using customer images to train its generative AI. I became aware of this a week or so ago, thought about it a bit, and decided that it was a non-issue for me. Yes, I use both Lightroom and Photoshop, but I use Lightroom Classic, which is based on my laptop, not in the cloud. So, Adobe’s changes in terms of service didn’t seem all that relevant to me.

However, this morning I was looking through YouTube, and I saw this video:

Intriguing title, thought I to myself: Does Adobe Really Think We’re That Stupid? (I Want You to Know What I Know). So I listened to what Adam Duff had to say.

Duff is not a photographer. He’s a digital artist. He has been using Photoshop for digital painting. I can understand that. When I got my Macintosh back in 1984 it came with MacPaint, a very elementary paint program. A decade or so later and on a newer Mac, one with color, I bought a simple paint program, perhaps called “Paintbrush” for all I know. So I know about using raster graphics software for creating images. But I didn’t start using Photoshop until the mid-2000s, when I begun taking photos. I got the program to work with photos, but, yes, I could see how it could be used as a paint program.

That’s how Duff, and many others, apparently used it. Duff spends much of the video complaining how ill-suited Photoshop was for his needs, but still, he had to use it because, well, it was after all possible to do so, and everyone else was using it. From his point of view, the various improvements Adobe has made to Photoshop over the years, they’ve not really met his needs. He runs through his 25 years of experience with Adobe. Then at 16 minutes in he gets to the current round of innovations, AI. He’s not impressed. He goes on to explain (c. 17:30):

the joy of art is in the creation of art
it's the meditative thoughtful process of working things out
it's a problem solving
it's an exploration
it's a sculpting process
it's a hands-on
it's a tactile thing
I don't want some stupid AI generated
bullshit
no!
it's like why bother to get fit and play sports when I can just hit a button and it can play the game and
win it for me
nobody asked for that

but Adobe are all over that shit
and they want to be the first on top of that shit
because what they're doing is
they're turning this painting app
that digital painters have been using for two and a half decades like myself
plus
and they're turning it into another
AI prompting generator

and they're expecting us artists
us hardworking artists that went through years of education and hard work to learn and master the craft of art
spending our money
investing our time and energy
and investing ourselves into the mastery of this craft slowly but surely
and all of the ups and downs struggles
just to have some fucking corporate head do it for us by pressing a button

Color me sympathetic, deeply sympathetic. He’s no longer using Adobe for his work.

I’ve had similar thoughts about AI generated music, which I know about mostly through hearsay. For me, as a musician, much of the pleasure of music comes from the process of making music. And, while I’m pretty good, I’m convinced that you don’t have to have a relatively high level of technical skill – which I have – in order to enjoy making music. But that’s another story, for another time.

Anyhow, once I’d finished watching that video I discovered that YouTube’s trusty algorithm had given me more anti-Adobe clips to watch. This one is similar in spirit to Duff’s:

While Mike Gastin is not primarily interested in digital painting. He’s been using Adobe products for four decades and is interested in video post-production, audio editing, Photoshop for thumbnails, stock images, etc. His major complaint is that he now feels hemmed-in by AI-driven prompts, which he likens to a nanny state, a major theme in this video. When these new terms of use were announced he decided that he’d had enough. He's stopped using Adobe. He spends the last part of his video explaining what’s he’s using instead of Adobe.

I’ll give you one last video, Adobe's PR Nightmare Continues, by Kevin Patrick Robbins:

From the YouTube page:

Adobe is under fire again, this time for updates to its Terms of Service and the ensuing backlash. In previous videos, I covered Adobe’s initial response and how to disable certain settings in Photoshop and Creative Cloud. Yesterday, June 18, Adobe updated their Terms of Service, but the day before, the FTC hit them with a lawsuit over dark patterns, particularly concerning cancellation fees. As a long-time Adobe user, I’m torn between my appreciation for their software and my frustration with their business practices. Have they done enough to rectify the situation? Let's dive in and find out.

00:00 This Is Fine
00:40 Background
02:51 Photoshop Settings
04:35 Terms of Service Update & Backlash
08:59 What Are Dark Patterns? 10:56 The Updated Version of The Updated Terms
12:22 Problematic Videos
15:44 What's Actually New?
17:35 Am I Leaving Adobe?

No, he’s not leaving Adobe:

I love a great piece of software
and Photoshop is a great piece of software
but I loathe being taken advantage of and lied to
which I believe Adobe has done
but the question remains
have they done enough to make it right
I'm not so sure
personally for my work
because it's such an industry standard and because I've been using it for 30 years
I'm sticking with Photoshop
I don't have much of a choice.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Which is more or less how I feel about the whole AI business. The technology itself is fascinating and has the potential for doing a lot of good, but at the moment it is in the hands of a small number of large and not-quite-so-large corporations being run by people whose concern for human flourishing, shall we say, is questionable. That’s what bothers me.

This links to a web search on “Adobe backlash.” This links to a YouTube search on the same topic. Some titles:

Adobe roofies all of their customers,
Adobe Is an Evil Company…,
The Slow Death Of Adobe,
The Adobe Empire Has Fallen,
Why I’ve had enough of Adobe,
The Adobe Tire Fire Continues -- Adobe Responds To Community Backlash,
Adobe Quasi APOLOGIZES?! Adobe's Customers DON'T CARE!, etc.

More later. 

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Addendum, 6.26.24: The New York Times has just posted an article about changes in terms of service, including Adobe's: When the Terms of Service Change to Make Way for A.I. Training.