Technologies
Adobe: Our New Generative AI Will Help Creative Pros, Not Hurt Them
The Firefly tools begin with image creation and font styling but soon will spread to Photoshop and other software.
In 2022, OpenAI’s Dall-E service wowed the world with the ability to turn text prompts into images. Now Adobe has built its own version of this generative AI technology with tools that begin a technological overhaul of the company’s widely used creative tools.
On Tuesday, Adobe released the first two members of its new Firefly collection of generative AI tools for beta testing. The first tool creates an image based on a text prompt like «fierce alligator leaping out of the water during a lightning storm,» with hundreds of styles that can tweak results. The other applies prompt-based styles to text, letting people create letters that look hairy, scaly, mossy or however else they want.
Firefly for now is available on Adobe’s website, but the company will build generative AI directly into other tools, starting with its Photoshop image editing software, Illustrator for designs and Adobe Express for creating quick videos. The company hasn’t revealed its pricing approach for the new tools.
Creative professionals might see Firefly as an incursion into their creative domain, going beyond mechanical tools like selecting colors and trimming videos into the heart and soul of their jobs. With AI showing new smarts when it comes to translating documents, interpreting tax code, composing music and creating travel itineraries, it’s not irrational for professionals to feel spooked.
Like other AI fans, though, Adobe sees artificial intelligence as the latest digital tool to amplify what humans can do. For example, Firefly eventually could let people use Adobe tools to tailor designs to individuals instead of just creating one design for a broad audience, said Alexandru Costin, vice president of Adobe’s generative AI work.
«We don’t think AI will replace creative creators. We think that creators using AI will be more competitive than creators not using AI. This is why we want to bring AI to the fingertips of all our user base,» Costin said. «The only way to succeed in AI is to embrace it.»
Adobe’s Firefly products are trained from the company’s own library of stock images, along with public domain and licensed works. The company has worked to reduce the bias in training data that AI models can reflect, for example that business executives are male.
AI is a «sea change»
Artificial intelligence uses processes inspired by human brains for computing tasks, trained to recognize patterns in complex real-world data instead of following traditional and rigid if-this-then-that programming. With advances in AI hardware, software, algorithms and training data, the field is advancing rapidly and touching just about every corner of tech.
The latest flavor of the technology, generative AI, can create new material on its own. The best known example, ChatGPT, can write software, hold conversations and compose poetry. Microsoft is employing ChatGPT’s technology foundation, GPT-4, to boost Bing search results, offer email writing tips and help build presentations
AI tools are sprouting up all over. Adobe has used AI for years under its Sensei brand for features like recognizing human subjects in Lightroom photos and transcribing speech into text in Premiere Pro videos. EbSynth applies a photo’s style to a video, HueMint creates color palettes and LeiaPix converts 2D photos into 3D scenes.
But it’s the new generative AI that brings new creative possibilities to digital art and design.
«It’s a sea change,» said Forrester analyst David Truog.


One of the first members of Adobe’s Firefly family of generative AI tools will style text based on prompts like «the letter N made of gold with intricate ornaments.»
AdobeAlpaca offers a Photoshop plug-in to generate art, and Aug X Labs can turn a text prompt into a video. Google’s MusicLM converts text to music, though it’s not open to the public. Dall-E captured the internet’s attention with its often fantastical imagery — the name marries Pixar’s WALL-E robot with the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.
Related tools like Midjourney and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion spread the technology even further.
If Adobe didn’t offer generative AI abilities, creative pros and artists would get them from somewhere else.
Indeed, Microsoft on Tuesday incorporated Dall-E technology with its Bing Image Creator service.
Training AIs isn’t easy, but it’s getting less difficult, at least for those who have a healthy budget. Chip designer Nvidia on Tuesday announced that Adobe is using its new H100 Hopper GPU to train Firefly models through a new service called Picasso. Other Picasso customers include photo licensing companies Getty Images and Shutterstock.
Legal engineering
Developing good AI isn’t just a technical matter. Adobe set up Firefly to sidestep legal and social problems that AI poses.
For example, three artists sued Stability AI and Midjourney in January over the use of their works in AI training data. They «seek to end this blatant and enormous infringement of their rights before their professions are eliminated by a computer program powered entirely by their hard work,» their lawsuit said.
Getty Images also sued Stability AI, alleging that it «unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright.» It offers licenses to its enormous catalog of photos and other images for AI training, but Stability AI didn’t license the images. Stability AI, DeviantArt and Midjourney didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Adobe wants to assure artists that they needn’t worry about such problems. There are no copyright problems, no brand logos, and no Mickey Mouse characters. «You don’t want to infringe somebody else’s copyright by mistake,» Costin said.
The approach is smart, Truog said.
«What Adobe is doing with Firefly is strategically very similar to what Apple did by introducing the iTunes Music Store 20 years ago,» he said. Back then, Napster music sharing showed demand for online music, but the recording industry lawsuits crushed the idea. «Apple jumped in and designed a service that let people access music online but legally, more easily, and in a way that compensated the content creators instead of just stealing from them.»
Adobe also worked to counteract another problem that could make businesses leery, showing biased or stereotypical imagery.
It’s now up to Adobe to convince creative pros that it’s time to catch the AI wave.
«The introduction of digital creativity has increased the number of creative jobs, not decreased them, even if at the time it looked like a big threat,» Costin said. «We think the same thing will happen with generative AI.»
Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to create some personal finance explainers that are edited and fact-checked by our editors. For more, see this post.
Technologies
Tesla to Release First-Quarter Earnings Following Market Close
Tesla’s stock has underperformed all of its megacap peers so far this year as global competition ramps up in the electric vehicle market.
Tesla is scheduled to release its first-quarter financial results after market hours on Wednesday.
Here are the key expectations from Wall Street, based on LSEG estimates:
— Projected earnings per share: 37 cents
— Anticipated revenue: $22.64 billion
Tesla’s stock has underperformed compared to other megacap stocks on Wall Street this year, dropping 14% as of Tuesday’s close, largely due to sluggish sales in its core automotive division. In contrast, the S&P 500 has risen by over 3%.
Analysts forecast a 17% revenue increase from $19.3 billion in the same period last year, marking the company’s strongest growth period since mid-2023.
The past year has been challenging due to competition from Chinese automakers like Xiaomi and BYD, which provide advanced yet more affordable models against Tesla’s aging electric vehicle lineup. Additionally, Tesla faces consumer backlash related to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration, his provocative political statements, and support for far-right politicians.
Earlier this month, Tesla announced 358,023 vehicle deliveries for the first quarter, a decrease from the previous quarter but a 6% increase year-over-year. The company has experienced annual declines in deliveries for the past two years.
Musk has attempted to shift focus toward the company’s advancements in autonomous driving technology and humanoid robots. While Tesla is testing a limited number of driverless cars for its ride-hailing service in Texas, the company still depends heavily on EV sales for revenue and has not yet launched a vehicle ready for robotaxi operations.
Tesla offers an FSD (Supervised) system for $99 monthly, which requires a human supervisor to remain attentive and ready to take control at any moment. Recently, Tesla received approval to sell a version of FSD (Supervised) in the Netherlands and is pursuing wider European regulatory clearance.
In its delivery report, Tesla noted the deployment of 8.8 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage systems during the first quarter of 2026, falling short of Wall Street expectations after a record 14.2 gigawatt hours in Q4 2025.
Musk’s focus has been divided this quarter as he merged his aerospace and defense company SpaceX with his AI venture xAI in a $1.25 trillion deal. He is now preparing the combined entity for what is anticipated to be a historic IPO.
In Tesla’s January earnings report, the company disclosed investing approximately $2 billion in xAI, with holdings converted to SpaceX shares. Tesla and SpaceX are collaborating on numerous joint initiatives, including a Terafab chip manufacturing facility in Texas and deeper integration of xAI’s Grok models and AI chatbot into Tesla vehicles and robotics.
Investors who submitted questions online ahead of Wednesday’s earnings call inquired about Tesla and SpaceX’s ongoing collaboration and potential future merger.
Shareholders are also demanding concrete data on Tesla’s long-promised autonomous technology, timelines for unveiling the latest Optimus humanoid robots, and updates on its ride-hailing business, where it lags behind Alphabet’s Waymo in the U.S. and Baidu’s Apollo Go in China.
Tesla’s current Robotaxi service primarily relies on human drivers in California or human safety supervisors inside the vehicle. The company recently announced expansions to Dallas and Houston.
WATCH: Tesla can only trade on hopes about the future for so long, says Cramer
Technologies
LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, appoints veteran executive Dan Shapero as its new Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft’s LinkedIn has appointed veteran executive Dan Shapero as its new Chief Executive Officer, marking a significant leadership transition for the professional networking platform.
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Technologies
Retail Investors Can Now Access OpenAI Through Robinhood’s Venture Fund
Retail investors can now access OpenAI through Robinhood’s venture fund, allowing them to invest in the company’s long-term growth.
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