Adobe is almost definitely using your content to train AI
Your photos and images are Sensei’s secret sauce
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Art and AI have been hitting the headlines again - but this time, it’s not about robot-generated masterpieces.
Instead, it’sAdobe’s content analysis policy in the firing line.Social mediausers highlighted how thePhotoshopdeveloper uses content saved on its servers: it appears Adobe may be using it to trainAI.
In response, a flurry of users began to list ways to lockdown privacy settings across the suite ofCreative CloudandDocument Cloudapps. Even the team behindfree drawing softwareKrita joined the Twitterstorm, describing Adobe’s actions as “ew”.
Adobe content analysis
The online pushback began when Adobe added content analysis to its data collection permissions - forcing users to opt out of the controversial plan.
In a circulated screenshot, the new option explains “Adobe may analyze your content using techniques such as machine learning to develop and improve our products and services. If you prefer that Adobe not analyze your files to develop and improve our services, you can opt out of content analysis at any time. This setting does not apply in limited circumstances.”
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Without toggling this option off, creatives could unwittingly find their work being used to train algorithms.
However, this isn’t a new policy. The original text can be found on theFAQs, last updated in August 2022. There, the company further explains:
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“Adobe primarily uses machine learning in Creative Cloud and Document Cloud to analyze your content. Machine learning describes a subset of artificial intelligence in which a computing system uses algorithms to analyze and learn from data without human intervention to draw inferences from patterns and make predictions.”
Artificial intelligence has been one of Adobe’s biggest successes over the last few years. Dubbed Adobe Sensei, it runs through everything fromAcrobattoPremiere Pro, delivering higher-quality outputs across a more accessible creative toolstack.
It turns out - perhaps unsurprisingly - Sensei’s secret sauce is user content. This includes Adobe Stock,Adobe Express, andLightroomsubmissions, beta participation and improvement programs, and processing the structural elements of PDFs.
Responding to the outcry, an Adobe spokesperson told multiple publications that users maintain control over their privacy preferences and settings, reiterating that this was a long-standing policy. So, that’s all right then.
Steve is TechRadar Pro’s B2B Editor for Creative & Hardware. He began in tech journalism reviewing photo editors and video editing software at the magazine Web User, where he also covered technology news, features, and how-to guides. Today, he and his team of reviewers test out a range of creative software, hardware, and office furniture. Once upon a time, he wrote TV commercials and movie trailers. Relentless champion of the Oxford comma.
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