How is Firefly safe for commercial use? (Adobe Stock now contains 62% unsafe Generative AI, IP, etc)
Hi there, this is a serious question by a loyal Adobe user of 10+ years.
I have a major concern with using Adobe Firefly for commercial use, and app safety now that it is built into the programs I use (Photoshop, etc.). Can somewhat at Adobe please help clarify? Currently commercial use states:
Adobe Firefly - Free Generative AI for creatives
Trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content, Firefly is designed to be safe for commercial use. To ensure that creators can benefit from generative AI, we’ve developed a compensation model for Adobe Stock contributors whose content is used in the dataset to retrain Firefly models.
A quick search on Adobe Stock will find MILLIONS of Generative AI uploaded from those exact unsafe sources. I had remembered seeing something that the Gen AI portion was only 5%, yet here in the Illustration Category of Adobe Stock, Generative AI makes up 62% of content there (52,670,377 Generative AI images, out of 84,699,290 total) as of 6/22/24.
I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't so critical to get the data right. These generative AI models wouldn't exist without the content they are built upon, so that's why the early models were such an issue and lawsuits sprung up (billions of images scraped from the internet without artists' permission). Users were told Adobe Firefly was meant to be the "safe" alternative to not commercially-safe generative AI sources (built upon work scraped from artist's portfolio sites), yet here we are, flooding Adobe Stock with images from unknown Generative AI sources.
I've already come across two actual artist's names, multiple studios, and thousands of images containing blatant IP or brand content on Adobe Stock.
There are currently 87.8 MILLION pieces of content that are Generative AI on Adobe Stock and growing.
Can anyone clarify what percent of unsafe generative AI makes up the Firefly Training data set? What percent even is safe for commercial use?
Does Adobe either:
A) Train Firefly on Adobe Stock, which contains millions of images from unsafe sources, including IP, or
B) AVOID those unsafe sources and images containing IP, yet continue to sell them on Adobe Stock*
*This is a separate issue that I'm hoping to find an answer on eventually, if purchasing a Generative AI image from Adobe Stock that clearly contains IP or accidental brand content unknowingly (who is now liable if sued).
Can somebody please help clarify IF and HOW Firefly is commercially safe?
I want to continue to use this software but I am unsure how safe it is becoming. Please help clarify. Thank you!

