Adobe brings text-to-image AI creation inside Photoshop

Driving the news: Adobe announced the new foundation model and a beta version of Photoshop with the AI image creation capability at the London edition of its Max conference.

• The new version of Photoshop will allow people to type a description of an image or background they want, which is then added as a new layer.
• Adobe says the new version of Firefly renders details that past models have struggled with, including straight lines and fingers.
• Like its predecessors, version 3 of Adobe Firefly Image is designed to be "commercially safe," meaning it was trained on data that is either in the public domain or licensed by Adobe.

Yes, but: Adobe has recently come under some criticism for training Firefly with some stock images that were created using other AI tools, such as Midjourney.

What they're saying: Although many people launch Photoshop to edit an existing document, others want to start a new project from scratch or add a background to a single image, such as a product.

• "We see some customers getting lost in that initial step," Adobe VP of generative AI Alexandru Costin told Axios. "So we're introducing 'generate image' right in the workflow not only for when you have a new document, but when you want to add a new layer to a document and create the scene."

Between the lines: Adobe gives Photoshop users the ability to use a reference image in creating the AI image. That allows companies to match their brand style and other assets.

• However, its legal protection for Firefly only extends if users don't introduce copyright infringement through this reference image.