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Adobe is overhauling the terms customers must agree to when using its apps in an effort to win back trust \u2014\u00a0and clarify that it won\u2019t train AI on their work. The change, announced via a new blog post<\/a>, comes after a week of backlash from users<\/a> who feared that an update to Adobe\u2019s terms of service would allow their work to be used for AI training.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The new terms of service are expected to roll out on June 18th and aim to better clarify what Adobe is permitted to do with its customers\u2019 work, according to Adobe\u2019s president of digital media, David Wadhwani.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe have never trained generative AI on our customer\u2019s content, we have never taken ownership of a customer\u2019s work, and we have never allowed access to customer content beyond what\u2019s legally required,\u201d Wadhwani said to The Verge.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Adobe faced widespread scrutiny from creatives over the last week after its customers were alerted to\u00a0language in its terms of service update<\/a> that discussed AI. Customers interpreted Adobe\u2019s vague language to mean the company was allowing itself to freely access and use customers\u2019 work to train Adobe\u2019s generative AI models. That wasn\u2019t the case \u2014\u00a0and Adobe\u2019s policies around training weren\u2019t changing \u2014 but Adobe\u2019s chief product officer, Scott Belsky, acknowledged<\/a> that the wording was \u201cunclear\u201d and that \u201ctrust and transparency couldn\u2019t be more crucial these days.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIn retrospect, we should have modernized and clarified the terms of service sooner\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Wadhwani says that the language used within Adobe\u2019s TOS was never intended to permit AI training on customers\u2019 work. \u201cIn retrospect, we should have modernized and clarified the terms of service sooner,\u201d Wadhwani says. \u201cAnd we should have more proactively narrowed the terms to match what we actually do, and better explained what our legal requirements are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A chunk of the creative community has long-standing beef with Adobe over its alleged industry monopoly<\/a>, its subscription-based pricing models<\/a>, and its use of generative AI. The company trained its own Firefly AI model on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content to avoid some of the ethical concerns surrounding generative AI, but several<\/a> artists<\/a> have found images that reference their work on Adobe\u2019s stock platform \u2014 making it hard to trust<\/a> the protections in place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe feel very, very good about the process,\u201d Wadhwani said in regards to content moderation surrounding Adobe stock and Firefly training data but acknowledged it\u2019s \u201cnever going to be perfect.\u201d Wadhwani says that Adobe can remove content that violates its policies from Firefly\u2019s training data and that customers can opt out of automated systems designed to improve the company\u2019s service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Adobe said in its blog post that it recognizes \u201ctrust must be earned\u201d and is taking on feedback to discuss the new changes. Greater transparency is a welcome change, but it\u2019s likely going to take some time to convince scorned creatives that it doesn\u2019t hold any ill intent. \u201cWe are determined to be a trusted partner for creators in the era ahead. We will work tirelessly to make it so.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n