Adobe rolls out AI features, plans for price hikes and payouts

SAN FRANCISCO: After months of testing, Adobe on Wednesday opened up access to a range of generative artificial intelligence features across its software, with plans to raise prices but also to pay the contributors whose work helps make the features possible.

Adobe makes Photoshop and other editing tools that form the core of its Creative Cloud subscription software business. For the past six months, the company has been steadily adding new AI features to those programs, such as the ability to generate images from text.

Adobe is promising businesses the content its systems generate will be legally safe to use, which has become a contentious issue as content creators challenge technology firms in court over whether they are owed royalties for the use of their work in "training" AI systems. Adobe's system is based on content that it either has rights to or is in the public domain, and the company is offering a financial indemnity to its customers to back up its claims.

On Wednesday, Adobe said prices for many of its subscription products will increase $2 to $5 per month starting in November.

Adobe customers will get a certain number of "credits" toward using generative AI features. After those credits are used up, users can pay for more or keep using the features but at slower speeds.

Adobe also said it will pay the contributors to its stock imagery databases that are used to train its AI systems.

This year, Adobe will issue a one-time "contributor" bonus to artists based on how many images they have contributed to Adobe's database and how many times their images were licensed via traditional means from June 3, 2022 to June 3, 2023.

After that, Adobe will start paying out the bonus each year for the training work done with its AI systems.

"We want our stock contributors to continue to contribute both for the stock market, which is paying out more than it ever has, and for the value they're contributing to the training of these models," said Ely Greenfield, chief technology officer for digital media at Adobe, told Reuters.