Adobe recently angered many artists and designers by suggesting it trains AI models using their content, a claim the company had to quell in a blog post.
But some Adobe employees remain unsatisfied with the response and are calling for improved communication with customers.
According to screenshots of internal Slack channels obtained by Business Insider, Adobe employees complained about the company's poor handling of the controversy and called for a better long-term communications plan, noting that Adobe has been embroiled in similar controversies in the past, and adding that the company's internal review process needs to be fixed.
“If our goal is truly to put our users' interests first (and, to be honest, I sometimes wonder), it's surprising how poorly we communicate,” one of the people wrote in Slack. “The general perception is that Adobe is an evil company that will do anything to screw its users.”
“Avoid becoming like IBM, which appears to be surviving mainly due to its strong market position and legacy systems,” the Adobe employee added.
Creators on alert
This is the latest controversy sparked by the emergence of generative AI. The technology is based on AI models that are trained on vast amounts of data, including text, images, audio and video. It is unclear how this information will be accessed, or whether the creators of the data will be able to opt out or receive compensation.
This has made creators of all types wary of signs that their work is being used to create AI tools that might ultimately compete with theirs, and Adobe's customers, including graphic designers and other creative workers, are at the center of these debates.
“We may analyze your content.”
The recent furor has mainly stemmed from vague language Adobe used in its updated terms of service, which says the company “may analyze your content” using machine learning technology to “improve our services and software.”
The updated language now states, “Our automated systems may use techniques such as machine learning to analyze Your Content and Creative Cloud Customer Fonts (defined below in Section 3.10 (Creative Cloud Customer Fonts)) to improve our Services and Software and your user experience.”
The backlash was swift, with some creators threatening to cancel their Adobe subscriptions on social media.
Amid growing public backlash, Adobe responded with its first blog post last week explaining that it needed to access some data to run unrelated functions, and that the company doesn't train its AI models on customer content.
That blog post didn't quell the uproar, so Adobe issued another blog post on Monday reiterating its position.
“We have never trained our generative AI on customer content, taken ownership of customer work, or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements, nor have we considered these practices as part of our recent updates to our terms of service,” the second blog post read.
“m Disappointed”
Adobe employees said on a Slack channel that the company continues to face criticism from the creative community even after these blog posts.
One employee suggested Adobe should develop a “long-term communications and marketing plan beyond blog posts” and meet with the company's most prominent critics on YouTube and social media to “correct misinformation head-on.”
“It's really depressing to see misinformation spread like wildfire on social media,” the person wrote in Slack, “yet the loud rhetoric of 'suck Adobe' and 'cancel Adobe' is happening within the independent creative community and needs to be addressed.”
A third employee said the internal communications review process may be broken: “Are we doing anything meaningful to prevent this or are we only acting when it's pointed out to us?”
Adobe executives appear to be aware of the feedback: Adobe's chief strategy officer, Scott Belsky, wrote to X on Monday that updates to its terms of service were overdue.
“As technology evolves, companies' terms of service must evolve and directly address new concerns from creators. We should have done this sooner, but the team is committed to making it the right thing to do,” Belsky wrote.
“Healthier” Communication
An Adobe spokesperson told BI that the company has a culture of openness and plans to implement updated terms of use by June 18.
“At Adobe, there is no ambiguity about our position, our commitment to our customers, and responsible innovation in this space, and we welcome the opportunity to clarify our terms and commitments and address the concerns of our customers and communities,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Last week, Adobe's communications team posted on the same internal Slack channel that employees should refrain from directly discussing the terms of service controversy with external parties, and should instead refer them to the company's blog post, the company said.
Some employees praised Adobe's efforts to use more understandable language in its blog posts.
But they also said Adobe needed to address the root cause of the problem, rather than taking one-off measures when such issues arose. They noted that Adobe has faced similar controversies in the past over allegations that it charged early termination fees and deployed “dark patterns” to trick users into signing 12-month contracts.
One of them suggested we rethink how external messaging is created at Adobe and not be afraid to change things that aren't currently working.
“It will result in healthier communication in all future communications,” the person wrote.
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