Adobe has launched the beta program for Firefly, its new suite of generative AI art tools.
The toolset, which is browser-based, but which is designed to be embeddable into Adobe Creative Cloud tools like Photoshop, currently includes a text-to-image generator and AI text effects.
In future, Adobe aims to add text-based video editing and 3D capabilities.
New browser-based generative AI art tools for illustrators, designers and concept artists
In the initial beta, Firefly is focused on tools for 2D artists: illustrators, concept artists and graphic designers.
Two tools are available to test: a Stable Diffusion or Midjourney-style text-to-image generator, and a tool for applying textures and styles to text.
Both run inside web browsers, and generate JPEG or PNG images at resolutions up to 2,000 x 2,000px.
AI art tools for video editors and 3D artists in development
Features currently in development include tools for inpainting – erasing parts of an existing image, then filling the gap by typing in a text prompt – and extending the backgrounds of images.
Adobe is also working on making it possible to ‘personalise’ the AI model by training it on your own images.
Further off, Adobe is working on text-based video editing and AI-based 3D tools.
To judge from Adobe’s promo video, the 3D tools are geared towards generating material and style variants for 3D models, rather than full text-to-3D capabilities of the type recently announced by Shutterstock.
Will Firefly be integrated into Adobe software?
Although the Firefly tools are browser-based, Adobe says that they are designed to be integrated its into existing services and software, which includes Photoshop, After Effects and the Substance 3D Collection.
According to the firm’s blog post, “everything is designed, from the ground up, to be embeddable into … Adobe Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express”.
Has Firefly been trained on your images?
The use of artists’ work to train AI tools is a contentious issue: something we’ve touched on in stories like this one on Glaze, a free tool intended to prevent unauthorised use of images to train “unethical” AI models.
The initial generative AI model used for Firefly has been trained on Adobe Stock, the firm’s stock image library, plus “openly licensed work and public domain content where copyright has expired”.
The model was not trained on images from artists’ portfolios hosted on the Adobe-owned Behance, and Adobe’s FAQs state that it does not currently “train on any Creative Cloud subscribers’ personal content”.
What if you don’t want your images used to train AI models in future?
Adobe’s blog post on the ethics of generative AI mentions Do Not Train credentials that will prevent web crawlers from harvesting artists’ images for use in datasets to train new AI models.
It isn’t clear whether the tags are currently applied to images by any Adobe services, and the post also mentions that they will need “industry adoption” to be effective.
Artists who have licensed their images to Adobe Stock can not opt out of having their images included in training datasets, although Adobe is “continuing to explore the possibility”.
The firm is developing a compensation scheme to pay contributors to Stock for including their work in AI training datasets, although it doesn’t plan to announce details until the end of the beta.
Price, system requirements and release date
Adobe’s Firefly tools are in private beta. You can request an invite here. The tools are not licensed for commercial use during the beta period. Adobe hasn’t yet announced a commercial release date or pricing.
Firefly is browser-based, and supports the Chrome, Safari and Edge browsers on the desktop. It does not yet support tablets or mobile devices.
Read more about Firefly on Adobe’s product website
(Includes links to register for the beta)
Read Adobe’s technical FAQs about using Firefly
Read Adobe’s FAQs about the ethics of generative AI art tools
Read Adobe’s FAQs about the use of Adobe Stock images to train Firefly
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