AI Reference Template? Adobe Addresses Customer Concerns Over Firefly AI Feature and Will Cover Copyright Compensation Losses

AI-generated artwork copyright concerns have led global design software giant Adobe to introduce a compensation clause, promising to take responsibility for its Adobe Firefly image generation AI tool.

Through Firefly, Adobe will also provide IP (intellectual property) compensation for enterprise customers, meaning Adobe will protect customers from Firefly IP claims.

Firefly, launched in March, functions similarly to other generative AI tools, inputting text prompts to generate images. Its training sources are mainly Adobe's own image library and the public domain, making it safe for commercial use.

Since its launch, Firefly has undergone multiple updates and is set to be integrated with Alphabet-C's AI chatbot Bard. Adobe also opened a paid TOB version of Firefly in early June.

Due to Adobe's protection of creators' rights, Firefly is less likely to be boycotted by professional creators than other generative AI tools. Under Firefly's promotion, Adobe's Q2 revenue increased by 10% YoY, exceeding Wall Street's expectations. What's more, Adobe raised its full-year revenue and profit guidance.

Since March, Adobe's stock price has surged nearly 50%.

Before releasing Firefly, Adobe's Chief Strategy Officer Scott Belsky discussed the issue with various companies at the Upfront Summit. The company's stance was clear:

"AIGC Adobe Stock Firefly has been trained on open datasets that do not infringe any copyright."

Adobe's General Counsel Dana Rao said this approach greatly reduces the risk of Adobe's compensation clause. Enterprise customers know that Adobe has trained its model on content they have the right to use, and if they are still sued for some reason, Adobe will provide protection.

Rao told TechCrunch:

"We're trying to be very transparent with our customers about what we're doing and how we're doing it."

If you are indeed sued for the content generated by Firefly, we will intervene according to our enterprise agreement and compensate you.

So, what will we compensate for?

We will compensate for the content output by Firefly... If it is someone else's work and looks like their work, it will constitute infringement, because it is ()'s work, and we will know where our work comes from.

Founder and chief analyst of Constellation Research, Ray Wang, said that this approach is wise for Adobe and the creators who contribute to Adobe Stock.

This is actually a brilliant strategy. The reasons are as follows:

It only applies to Adobe Stock, and Adobe owns all the creative arrangements in Adobe Stock.

More importantly, they enable creators to make money from derivatives of Adobe Stock works generated by Firefly.

Legal