Adobe’s bid to make photos so real you can’t tell the difference

Adobe has released AI-powered tools which computer-generate content almost indistinguishable from human-created images.

Software giant Adobe is introducing a range of photorealistic tools across its artificial intelligence platform which make automated computer-generated content almost indistinguishable from human-created images.

The $US240bn company released an update of AI extension Firefly – which is embedded across its suite of projects such as Photoshop and Illustrator – on Wednesday, introducing richer image rendering tools, including the ability to mimic high-end SLR cameras and move objects around in photos as though they were furniture.

In total, Adobe is introducing 100 new updates to the platform. It comes amid heightened concern around deep fakes and the risk of spreading more misinformation ahead of next year’s US presidential election and other major polls in Europe and India.

Already, people have used AI to create deep fakes of debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Adobe plans to counter this by introducing watermarking in an image’s metadata field, to show its been AI-generated – what it likens to a “nutrition label”.

While the Biden administration has sought voluntary commitments from tech companies, governments globally have yet to introduce dedicated laws to control the use of AI.

Adobe chief technology officer Ely Greenfield said the government-enforced AI regulation was evolving. The US has been conscious of not stifling innovation with red tape, particularly as it faces increased competition from China, as well as being perceived as limiting free speech – hence the voluntary commitments.

“We’re continuing to work with hardware manufacturers, with media companies, social media companies, tooling companies like ourselves, and government and non-government organisations who are very interested in exactly the question you asked, and the work that we’re doing to promote that,” Mr Greenfield said about AI regulation and combating deep fakes.

“We work very closely with governments around the world who are trying to figure out what is the right level of investment and support and intervention from government agencies. There’s a lot of good work happening there.

“But in the end, the right thing to do and the only solution that really works here is to invest in technologies that allow us to put those digital nutrition labels on it, so that you can very quickly see how is this content created? And then make your own decisions about what that means for you.”

On the other end of the spectrum to deep fakes is novel AI-produced content, such as ageing Marvel superheroes, to see what a geriatric Iron Man or Captain America looks like, which is clearly fake and aimed more at entertaining rather than presenting fact.

Examples of images created by prompt in Adobe Firefly.

“There’s plenty of assets out there where it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. It’s not claiming to be real,” Mr Greenfield said.

“But as soon as it claims to be a source of truth, a documentary asset, then you really want to dig in and be able to see for yourself, read the label and understand what was taken here if it’s a photograph, and you actually have a cryptographic signature on it.

“You can very quickly see and say, ‘Oh, this was taken with a Canon camera a month ago and it has been signed by Canon saying this was actually the image that came out of the camera, or here’s the image what you’re looking at’ – the contrast been adjusted and it’s been maybe, you know, dodge or burned a little bit’. That’s okay, that’s not meaningful distortion.

“That’s the kind of power that we need to be able to put into consumers’ hands. And that’s something that we can do by getting that on to the content. And then we need to work with the media companies to make sure that that is visible and consumable by the consumer.”

Like most AI tools – particularly those designed for commercial use – the benefits of striking the right balance are considerable, particularly in helping jump-start flatlining productivity by allowing employees to outsource tedious and menial tasks.

This is what Adobe is aiming to achieve with Firefly. Mr Greenfield said it was not only a tool to help creatives realise their vision more quickly but also allow novices or people with no design training to create content including advertising collateral, corporate newsletters and slick presentations.

“It’s about creative control. The magic of typing a prompt and getting an image out with no work is super fun,” he said.

“But you never know what you will get. So really, the interest for us is allowing customers to choose to opt in with more and more control, and more and more specificity about what they want and decide whether they’re going to spend a minute on it, or an hour on it so that they can really get the image that they’re looking for out of it.”