Adobe Firefly + Adobe Stock

Transforming Stock Photography: The Role of Generative AI and Adobe's Commitment to Creatives

By Adobe / 2023-09-23 / Topics : Artificial intelligence

Header: Transforming Stock Photography: The Role of Generative AI and Adobe's Commitment to Creatives

In the rapidly evolving landscape of creative technology, the future role of generative AI in various creative sectors, particularly stock photography, is a topic of intense discussion. Generative AI is a groundbreaking technology that collaborates with creators to generate new content based on diverse inputs, including text prompts, existing imagery, and stylistic cues. It operates on two core principles: 'models' trained on comprehensive datasets and 'inference' derived from user instructions. As these models advance through extensive training and users become adept at harnessing their capabilities, generative AI has the potential to generate images, vectors, or custom text styles from textual cues. It can also transform 2D images into highly detailed 3D models, simulating intricate lighting and textures. In the future, it is poised to convert creative directives into animated visuals and videos.

As AI technology continues to evolve and enhance creative workflows, Adobe is enthusiastic about providing increasingly sought-after generative AI features to our valued customers. We are committed to pioneering innovation responsibly, respecting copyright and ensuring fair compensation for the contributors whose data is instrumental in training generative AI models.

Since the beta release of Adobe Firefly, we have closely observed and engaged with businesses, creators, and stock contributors to understand their perspectives on and utilization of these capabilities. Generative AI represents a profound shift, one that we firmly believe will expand opportunities for both creators and businesses.

From concept to execution, Firefly serves as an accelerator and amplifier of the creative process, benefiting both Adobe Stock customers and contributors. We are more excited than ever about the roadmap ahead. We firmly believe that stock photography will continue to be an indispensable component of the creative realm.

Early Discoveries:
The global creative community's innovative use of Firefly has far surpassed our initial expectations. Creatives worldwide are employing generative AI to expand and transform images, expedite layer blending and compositing, create contextually fitting custom text styles, and significantly boost their creative output, ideation, and productivity.

Moreover, while the demand for Firefly is unprecedented, the demand for stock photography remains robust and is, in fact, increasing. Over the last six months, Adobe Stock has witnessed record-high licensing activities and contributor payouts. Both existing and new contributors are embracing generative AI tools to reduce production costs and amplify their contributions, thereby enhancing their earning potential.

Firefly Contributor Bonus:
Adobe recognizes the vital role played by the stock contributor community, comprising photographers, designers, illustrators, filmmakers, and multimedia artists. This community is integral to Adobe, contributing not only to Adobe Stock licensing but also to the training of Firefly. We perceive Firefly as a valuable companion to Adobe Stock, assisting customers in enhancing assets and facilitating ideation. It also presents an opportunity for our contributors to potentially increase their annual earnings through Adobe.

To demonstrate our commitment, we are pleased to announce two initiatives aimed at delivering value to our Stock contributors:

Firefly Contributor Bonus: Eligible Adobe Stock contributors with content in the standard and Premium collection, which was used to train the inaugural commercial Firefly model, will receive a Firefly bonus. This bonus, unique to each contributor, is determined by the total number of approved images submitted to Adobe Stock and used for Firefly training, along with the number of licenses those images generated from June 3rd, 2022, to June 2nd, 2023. This bonus will be distributed annually and is currently weighted towards the demand and usefulness of the images, as indicated by the number of licenses issued.

Firefly Stock Submissions: With Adobe Firefly now available commercially, works generated with Firefly that meet our generative AI submission guidelines can be submitted to Adobe Stock. Given the proliferation of generative AI in creative tools like Photoshop, we anticipate that future assets will incorporate generated elements. To prepare Adobe Stock for this future while safeguarding artists' rights, we are enhancing our moderation capabilities to prevent the inappropriate use of creators' names as prompts and to protect creators' intellectual property. Contributors who submit content infringing upon the IP rights of others will be removed from Adobe Stock.

Moving Forward:
We are committed to exploring innovative ways to empower Stock contributors further. This includes enabling contributors to create their own custom Firefly models to expedite production and reduce costs, providing insights into trends and market demands, and ultimately fostering their success. We will share more details on these initiatives soon.

These initial months of exploration have emphasized that creativity thrives on iteration, enabling the exploration of ideas, experimentation with approaches, and embracing variability. However, it has also underscored the complexity and importance of responsible integration of generative AI tools to protect and empower creators' livelihoods. Our dedication remains unwavering: making creativity accessible and powerful for all, while pioneering responsible innovation in collaboration with creators, stock contributors, and customers.

As AI technology evolves to help creative workflows be far more imaginative and productive, our team at Adobe is excited by the opportunity to provide increasingly requested generative AI capabilities to our customers while also innovating in a responsible way that respects copyright and seeks to compensate Stock contributors of the data used to train generative AI models.

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