Adobe has announced it is putting generative AI to work in Photoshop in order to give users a “magical new way to work” when it comes to photo editing. The company has integrated Firefly, its family of creative AI models, into Photoshop, with the rest of its Creative Cloud portfolio to follow.
The new feature Adobe is keen to stress is Generative Fill, which allows users to extend or remove content in images non-destructively using AI. That means, the newly-created content appears as additional layers without impacting the original image. As with other generative AI tools, Generative Fill only requires text prompts and works in seconds to make changes.
In the image above, the tool was used to overlay the car and the cloud onto the existing image with little more than a simple text prompt.
As well as integrating into Photoshop, Generative Fill is also available as a module in the Firefly beta for other users who want to test it out directly on the web. Like other AI tools, it could become incredibly useful as a means of quick visual idea generation based on nothing more than a few text prompts. Furthermore, as users become familiar with the system, they will be able to collaborate with the AI to refine and improve the images they’re working on.
Of course, Adobe’s suite of photo and video editing software is no stranger to AI assistance. The company has employed its Sensei AI system for features like Photoshop’s Neural Filters for years. But in all likelihood the emergence of Firefly will supercharge the software for beginners and intermediate users.
Firefly is a multimodal family of models so it’s capable of much more than just static images; audio, video and 3D modelling are all included.
“By integrating Firefly directly into workflows as a creative co-pilot, Adobe is accelerating ideation, exploration and production for all of our customers,” said Ashley Still, senior vice president of Digital Media at Adobe. “Generative Fill combines the speed and ease of generative AI with the power and precision of Photoshop, empowering customers to bring their visions to life at the speed of their imaginations.”
Photoshop isn’t the only AI-infused image generator making waves at the moment. Earlier this week, researchers from Google and the Max Planck Institute revealed a white paper on a new image editing tool called DragGAN. The tool uses AI to help users resize and redraw images with little-to-no photo editing experience and offers a tantalising glimpse of the future of image manipulation.
