Adobe has always marketed its artificial intelligence image generation tool Firefly as a type of ethical AI, primarily using its own library of licensed stock images (millions of photos, designs, and illustrations from the Adobe Stock library). I've been using it to train Firefly.
A new report from Bloomberg claims that this squeaky-clean image may not be as perfect as the creators of Photoshop want us to see. The training data for a “commercially safe” model may contain some poorly sourced skeletons.
During the process of training the Firefly AI model, some images were obtained from our competitor Midjourney. The startup hasn't disclosed the source of its training data, but many suspect it comes from unlicensed images collected from the internet.
According to Adobe, only about 5% of the millions of images used to train Firefly fall into this category, and they are all part of the Adobe Stock library, which means it has gone through a “rigorous moderation process.”
Why is this such a big deal?
When Adobe first launched Firefly, it offered coverage against copyright infringement claims as a way to convince business customers that Firefly was safe.
Adobe also marketed Firefly as a safe alternative to the likes of Midjourney and DALL-E, as all data was licensed and allowed to be used to train models.
Not all artists were so enthusiastic at the time, and felt forced to agree to let the creative technology giant use their work. However, there was a sense that images created with Firefly were safe to use without the risk of being sued for copyright theft.
Is Firefly's copyright still safe?
Despite revealing that some images were potentially from less reputable sources, Adobe says all non-human images are still safe.
A spokesperson told Bloomberg: “All images submitted to Adobe Stock, including a small portion of AI-generated images, contain IP, trademarks, recognizable text or logos, and the name of the referring artist. “We go through a rigorous moderation process to ensure that the content is not tampered with.” . ”
It looks like the company is taking slightly more rigorous steps with its plans to build an AI video generator. Rumor has it that they pay artists per minute for their video clips.
I have reached out to Adobe for comment on this matter.
