The firestorm around @Adobe’s new terms of service poses a direct threat to the company’s core business. The #CreativeCloud stands for no less than 60% of the company’s sales, a share that has been stable over the last 3 years.
While it is true that @Adobe in the wake of the scandal has stated they would not use users’ content to train their #generativeAI graphics generator #Firefly, section 4.2 of the new TOS does seem to allow exactly that: “Solely for the purposes of operating or improving the Services and Software, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free sublicensable license to use, reproduce, publicly display, distribute, modify, create derivative works based on, publicly perform, and translate the Content.”
“Improving software” is the operative term here. It seems to imply that, legally, Adobe could use user content to train AI.
Even if Adobe sticks to this promise now, with the TOS as they are, there is no telling what management might do in the future, or what future management might do.
And even if they do stick to that promise for all time, customer sentiment is like politics: perception is reality.
Which means Adobe has a major PR crisis on their hands.
The only way out for Adobe is to change the TOS.
All this is on top of the fact that #generativeAI itself poses a mortal threat to Adobe. How long will it take for a #GAI product to come out that will make the manual creative tools such as #Photoshop, #Illustrator and #PremierPro obsolete, allowing to manipulate content with simple verbal commands instead? Versus getting a week-long training, gathering experience on how to use these tools for years and years, and still not finding the function you’re looking for because it’s somewhere in the fifth sub-sub-sub-sub-sub menu?
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