Nudity and other issues which appear to violate Adobe Generative AI Guidelines [merged thread]

@Nancy OShea 

Adobe claims Firefly “enhances workflow” but secretly blocks prompts not listed in their TOS. That’s a violation of truth-in-advertising standards under the FTC Act (15 U.S. Code § 45), which prohibits “deceptive acts or practices.”

1. Lack of disclosure = deception. Adobe’s TOS lists what isn’t allowed—but Firefly blocks more than what’s stated. That’s called prior restraint with no user consent or notice—legally dicey.

2. Material omission. Under FTC policy, a company must disclose information that would affect a consumer’s decision. If Adobe omits the fact that many prompts are arbitrarily blocked, that’s a material misrepresentation.

3. Unjust enrichment. Adobe charges a premium for Firefly tools in Photoshop. Selling a product that doesn’t function as advertised—while restricting use beyond the stated agreement—could be grounds for class action under consumer protection laws.

4. Creative suppression without notice. You don’t get to market an AI as “trained on licensed data” and “commercially safe” only to turn around and censor artistic prompts that aren’t even NSFW. That’s misrepresentation of capability.

Bottom line? If Firefly isn’t doing what Adobe publicly says it does, and if that impacts users’ creative output and purchase decisions, it’s legally indefensible.

"remove a vent cover or electrical outlet, or to extend the background 20 pixels,"

Clone stamp tool should work perfectly for the former, Content aware fill should do for the latter. 

I'm not asking for adult content or nudity. I'm asking to be able to remove a vent cover or electrical outlet, or to extend the background 20 pixels, on a photo that has a fully-clothed person in it. It won't allow this if the person looks remotely female.

I am very familiar with that concept.  It's why I wrote they are ". . . well suited to take the hit of a lawsuit or two . . .".  I'm not saying they won't lose money on suits or won't pay their own ridiculously intelligent and well paid attorneys (I'm making an assumption there, but I can't believe they don't have a few good one's on retainer.)  I'm saying they're too greedy and risk averse to take the shot at diving in and come out a better, more profitable company afterwards.  I'm saying there's not enough risk to justify taking losses that will far from hurt the company even if it doesn't work out well in the end.  Adobe should be the one spearheadding AI, not cowering in a boardroom waiting for someone else to be the hero.

They are an immensely profitable company well suited to take the hit of a lawsuit or two, bide their time if they get cancelled for something, or blast full force and take over the visual AI industry. 

By @Dave28161132d2ux 

I once had a seminar, where one of our lawyers gave us an overview of the legal situation of websites and corporate property. One of his remarks that sticked was: "Before we sue someone, we check if he has money. Without money, there is no incentive to sue them.". In other words: a wealthy company with a lot of cash and operations around the world is much more susepticle to get hit by a lawsuit than a poor company operating only in one small corner of the world. 

And in many situations, companies can be hit with high penalties of a percentage of their world wide turnover.

Giuseppe, thanks for the work around.  That's good for the interim.  Nicmart is right though.  Adobe has become some kind of moral  judgement machine.  In the past, I'd have thought they'd lead the way in navigating through the obstacles of censorship.  Not so.  They are an immensely profitable company well suited to take the hit of a lawsuit or two, bide their time if they get cancelled for something, or blast full force and take over the visual AI industry.  They are just a board of directors who made $5 billion alone last year.  These non-artistic,  emotionless, cowardly, risk adverse entities don't want to gamble on that.  Sad.

My name is Leonardo, I’m a graphic designer currently working on chapters of a horror book. During the free trial last year, I was able to generate images of demons, eerie scenes, and similar content without any major issues. However, the current filters in the Generative Fill tool have become so strict that it’s honestly… a bit frightening.

• Unnecessary content censorship
  Beach photos featuring people in swimsuits or shirtless are being flagged as nudity and blocked, which is disrupting my creative workflow.
• Annual subscription underdelivering
  I subscribed to the annual Firefly plan to fully explore the tool’s potential, but these constant restrictions are making it difficult to use the product effectively.
• Compared to other AI tools
  Other image generation platforms can distinguish context and appropriateness much more accurately — I truly hope Firefly can match the standard Adobe is known for.

I kindly ask the product team to reconsider and adjust the content moderation filters, finding a better balance between safety and the creative freedom artists rely on (after all, I’m not trying to summon real demons… just illustrate them digitally!).

Thank you in advance for your attention — I’m happy to provide examples or further feedback if needed.

Sincerely,

Leonardo

Graphic Designer

Workarounds are to Adobe censorship what bootlegging was to alcohol prohibition. A very poor solution.

paint over the offending body parts and export a copy of the image, then use the copy to extend the background and finally use the extended background with the original image. I found that if you do that with layers within the same image, sometimes it still doesn't work for me, so this workaround so far did the job.

"Photoshop includes Firefly AI capabilities now."

===========

At this moment, it does, but that could change. Historically, new features in Photoshop come & go. This happened with Image Ready, web page builders and 3D graphics tools— all gone now.  At its core, Photoshop is still an image editor.

If your sole interest is AI, you can use Firefly and/or other generative AI services without Photoshop.

https://firefly.adobe.com