For those of us who have been captivated by Adobe Photoshop’s Beta release which included the Adobe Firefly AI-powered tools such as Generative Fill and Generative Expand, the wait is finally over.
On Sept 13, 2023 Adobe released it’s AI-powered tools to the native versions of Adobe Photoshop, releasing it from Beta, and now made available for commercial use and mainstream Creative Cloud users.
Generative Fill and Generative Expand
Generative Fill and Generative Expand are two AI-powered features that have blown away the creative industry with it’s seamless and powerful execution of generating AI-driven backgrounds, subject matter and more. Users that found these features with Adobe Firefly and in the Beta version of Adobe Photoshop no longer need additional program downloads for these tools and can access then directly in Adobe photoshop.
Along with the Generative Fill and Expand tools, Adobe also released new AI features in Premium Pro such Tex-Based Editing and the new Enhance Speech feature.
Generative Credits – Adobe Cashing in on AI
Unfortunately, with the release of these new powerful AI tools with Creative Cloud, Adobe has also restructured and updated its Creative Cloud pricing with a new credit-based model that would include an allocation of “fast” AI Generative credits. This obviously does come as a disappointment for a lot of us in the creative industry who assumed these features would be included in their annual Creative Cloud subscription prices, but that is not exactly the case. Yes, you can use these tools freely with your Creative Cloud subscription at “slower speeds” or you now have the option to buy additional “fast” Generative credits through an additional subscription pack.
The above-mentioned credit model will be implemented in November 2023, so there are still a lot of questions involving how this would actually work and if the “slow” AI tools will now be incredibly frustrating for users used to the Beta version and Firefly version.
For now, you can access Adobe’s new AI tools in the standard latest release of Adobe Photoshop, but don’t get too comfortable with them. As soon as you have mastered these tools and added them to your arsenal of commercial art creative assets, you’ll be presented with additional costs. These pricing models are nothing new to AI tools as we’ve seen a similar role out of premium pricing with OpenAI and other design tools including website page builders, vector tools and more.
The Price of Artificial Creativity
AI is taking the creative industry by storm, from stock photography to web design and development and now in our beloved Adobe tools, but this new technology comes with a price. If you are already paying for additional AI premium subscriptions Adobe’s pricing increase may not be something you are comfortable with. I guess we’ll all find out how it works soon enough.
