Adobe refuses allegations of AI models training through users’ data

Adobe’s chief product officer, Scott Belsky, has responded to concerns about the company’s policies on artificial intelligence (AI) and claimed that the software major has never used content created by its customers to train generative AI models.

“We have never, ever used anything in our storage to train a generative AI model,” Belsky said in an interview with Bloomberg, reports The Verge.

“Not once,” he added.

Earlier this month, the Krita Foundation, a group building open-source graphics software, had posted a screenshot of Adobe’s terms of service on Twitter.

“Adobe may analyse your content using techniques such as machine learning (e.g., for pattern recognition) to develop and improve our products and services,” the screenshot mentioned.

Some users perceived this as an indication that the software major was using customer-created content to train its generative AI models and criticised the company for opting consumers into content analysis by default.

Belsky referred to the criticisms as a “wake-up call” and mentioned that the policy is not intended for image generation.

“We are rolling out a new evolution of this policy that is more specific,” Belsky said.

“If we ever allow people to opt-in for generative AI specifically, we need to call it out and explain how we’re using it. We have to be very explicit about these things,” he added.

The software major has developed many products and tools that use AI algorithms, such as Adobe Sensei, which is an intelligence layer that integrates with software like Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere Pro, the report said.