Adobe Adds Generative AI Features to Photoshop; Says Will Make Editing, Creating Images Faster

Adobe announced on Tuesday that it is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technology for generating images into Photoshop, its premier image-editing software. This marks the beginning of a significant effort to incorporate AI technologies across its suite of programs designed for creative professionals.

While AI programs like OpenAI’s Dall-E have gained attention for transforming text prompts into images, they haven’t been widely adopted by major corporations due to legal uncertainties surrounding the data used to develop these systems.

Adobe has addressed these concerns with its core technology system called Firefly, which was specifically created using legally compliant image data, making it suitable for commercial use. Adobe has been testing Firefly on a standalone website for about six weeks and announced that it will now integrate features based on this system into Photoshop, arguably its most renowned product.

One new feature, “Generative Fill,” will enable users to extend an image that was cropped too closely with AI-generated content or add new elements based on a text description. For instance, the feature can transform a picture of a single flower into a field of flowers with a mountain range in the background.

Ely Greenfield, Adobe’s chief technology officer for digital media, emphasized that the tool is intended to enhance the workflow of graphic artists, not replace them. It aims to speed up the process of creating new images from multiple ideas, a task that previously required hours of searching photo archives and manually combining image pieces.

“This dramatically accelerates that production work,” Greenfield said.