Adobe Firefly + Adobe Stock

Image generated using Adobe Firefly.

There is much discussion about the future role of generative AI across creative segments, and how this technology will impact the world of stock photography. Generative AI refers to technology that works alongside creators, helping them create new content based on various inputs such as, but not limited to, text inputs, surrounding imagery, and stylistic direction. This technology has two fundamental concepts — ‘models’ trained on underlying datasets and ‘inference’ based on user prompts. As these models evolve through increased training and users learn how to interact with these models, generative AI can help create images, vectors, or custom text styles from text prompts, it can take a single 2D image and create a 3D model that accurately represents special lighting and textures, and in the future, it will be able to take creative direction and turn images and text into animations and video.

As AI technology evolves to help creative workflows be far more imaginative and productive, our team at Adobe is excited by the opportunity to provide increasingly requested generative AI capabilities to our customers while also innovating in a responsible way that respects copyright and seeks to compensate Stock contributors of the data used to train generative AI models.

Since we released the beta of Adobe Firefly, we’ve watched and spoken to businesses, creators, and stock contributors on how they view and use these capabilities, and we have learned a great deal. Generative AI is indeed a big change, but it is a change we deeply believe will increase opportunities for creators and businesses alike.

From ideation to execution, Firefly is an accelerator and amplifier of the creative process that benefits both Adobe Stock customers and contributors, and we’ve never been more excited about the roadmap ahead. We believe stock photography will undoubtably continue to play an essential role in creativity.

Early learnings

We have seen and are in awe of how creatives around the world are using Firefly — they have exceeded our expectations of what we thought possible. They are using generative fill to expand and transform images, they are blending layers and compositing at an accelerated rate, they are creating custom text styles that seamlessly and contextually fit into their designs, and ultimately, they are increasing the speed at which they create, ideate, and work.

And while we're seeing an unprecedented demand for Firefly, demand for stock not only remains strong but is increasing. In the last six months, Adobe Stock licenses and contributor payouts are at an all-time high. Contributions from existing and new contributors are also increasing at an accelerated rate. Stock contributors are embracing generative AI tools to lower their cost of production and increase their submissions and earnings potential.

Ultimately, our Adobe Stock customers seek the perfect image for their project that balance composition, relevant trends, commercial viability, and ultimately impact — and these are areas the stock contributor community understands deeply.

Firefly contributor bonus

The Stock contributor community of photographers, designers, illustrators, filmmakers, and multi-media artists of all kinds are vital to the creative process and to Adobe, for both Adobe Stock licensing and for Firefly training. We view Firefly as a helpful companion to Adobe Stock — helping customers augment assets to increase their usefulness as well as for all forms of ideation — and as a means for our contributors to potentially increase their annual earnings through Adobe.

To demonstrate that, while the terms we already have with Adobe Stock contributors permit Adobe to use Stock content to train models, we are pleased to share two specific announcements focused on creating value for the community of Stock contributors:

1. Firefly Contributor Bonus
   All eligible Adobe Stock contributors with photos, vectors or illustrations in the standard and Premium collection, whose content was used to train the first commercial Firefly model will receive a Firefly bonus. This initial bonus, which will be different for each contributor, is based on the all-time total number of approved images submitted to Adobe Stock that were used for Firefly training, and the number of licenses that those images generated in the 12-month period between June 3rd, 2022, to June 2nd, 2023. The bonus is planned to pay out once a year and is currently weighted towards number of licenses issued for an image, which we consider a useful proxy for the demand and usefulness of those images. The next Firefly Bonus is planned for 2024 for new content used for training Firefly.

2. Firefly Stock Submissions
   With Adobe Firefly now commercially available, Firefly-generated works that meet our generative AI submission guidelines will now be eligible for submission to Adobe Stock. Given the proliferation of generative AI in tools like Photoshop, and many more tools and cameras to come, we anticipate that assets in the future will contain some number of generated pixels and we want to set up Adobe Stock for the future while protecting artists. We are increasing our moderation capabilities and systems to be more effective at preventing the use of creators’ names as prompts with a focus on protecting creators’ IP. Contributors who submit content that infringes or violates the IP rights of other creators will be removed from Adobe Stock.

Moving forward

We continue to explore new ways for Stock contributors to be more productive (such as enabling you to create your own custom Firefly models in your style to speed the creation process and lower production costs), to be more effective (such as helping you understand what is trending and what companies are looking for to help guide your creative process), and ultimately to be more successful. We will be sharing more details around these ideas soon.

These early months of exploration have underscored just how much of creativity is a process of iteration that flourishes when you can explore ideas, experiment with approaches, and embrace variability. But it has also underscored the complexity and importance of embracing these new generative AI tools in a responsible way that protects and empowers creators’ livelihoods. We’re committed to making creativity more accessible to all, and more powerful and productive for professionals. We’re also committed to innovating responsibly, in partnership with creators, stock contributors, and customers.

For more information on the Firefly Bonus Compensation, please visit the FAQ. To learn more about Adobe Stock submissions, visit Learn & Support.