STOP with the AI popups.

[SarahMills]

Every time I open Photoshop to get to work, I get this. There is a reason I'm using the version that I'm using and no matter how many popups I get, I'm not going to update PS versions. I'm going to switch to Affinity. 

I loathe "GenAI" - it's lazy, harmful to the environment, and it has no place in my work. I believe it's offensive to the idea of being a creative. More than that I need Photoshop to not *get in my way* while I'm trying to clock in for the day.

If the friction I experience while attempting to avoid unwated AI popups/features/(chat bots while I'm trying to get adobe support??) starts to get near the friction I would experience migrating to a new suite of programs, then I'll just do that. I've been a PS user for 20 years at this point and this is finally pushing me away.

[Mark.Dahm]

There is a feature being tested in the Beta version of Photoshop called 'Focus Mode'.

Go to Preferences, Technology Previews, and check 'Enable Focus Mode'. This will reduce many of the notifications that you might be referring to. Only works in the Beta, for now.

@SarahMills 

[SarahMills]

Beta version is crammed with exactly the AI features I'd so like to avoid using or appearing to show any support for. Additionally, I don't use any "generative" features, but I still won't risk using a program that has the potential to output images that aren't cleared for commercial use - the vast majority of my work in PS is commercial.

[AlanGilbertson]

You don't say which version of Photoshop you're using. CS6, or a CC version you haven't updated? It makes a difference.

I understand the feeling about Generative AI, but it's just a tool. Photoshop is just a tool. We use a Photoshop workflow instead of a (properly creative?) drawing board, square, airbrush, frisket, and xActo knife because we have clients to please and bills to pay. 

There is always a cultural shift, and there is always disruption when creatives get their hands on new technology. Always. In the 1800s, people raged that photographers were parasites who would put creative artists out of business. Instead, photography birthed the Impressionist movement. More than a century later, people were still debating whether photographs qualified as art. Precision engineering transformed typography. The sewing machine transformed fashion design. CAD transformed architecture and engineering. Personal computers, in the hands of designers who embraced them, led to the Desktop Publishing revolution, replacing typesetters, color separation specialists, and layout artists. Today, nobody builds "mechanicals" for a magazine, nobody shoots them with a 'stat camera, nobody masks negatives with rubylith. We do it in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop.

AI does have value in a commercial workflow, not to replace any creative work, but to automate tedious and/or time-consuming tasks. The new tools save hours in a retouching or photo restoration workflow. "Remove distractions" does in one click, on a photo I use to test retouching tools, four painstaking hours or wire and cable removal, and does it better than I can do by hand. The AI-powered selection tools similarly replace hours of work with masks, burshes, pen tool, etc. These improvements aren't trivial, and they aren't replacing anyone's creativity. If you do commercial work, they are important.

Firefly, the overall name for Adobe's genAI, is the only one currently available that is trained ONLY on fully licensed or public domain content, so that anything produced with it is safe for commercial work. (Adobe also pays every artist whose work contributes to a generated image. In the Adobe Stock Discord, you'll find a lot of happy posts following the most recent payout.) Legality is the whole point: Adobe's is the only genAI right now that the legal departments of the big entertainment industry firms will allow in finishing work.

[AlanGilbertson]

Firefly is the only commercially safe AI. Adobe's gone a step beyond, however, with Content Authenticity Initiative to protect the intellectual property rights of creatives. There's a private beta you can apply for, and you can read about (and join) the industry Content Authenticity Initiative, which was spearheaded by Adobe but is now industry-wide.

[SarahMills]

I don't say which version I'm using because this isn't a help request, it's an "idea" in the "ideas" section of the forum. If it's not obvious by the tone of my first post, I don't think "lock you out of clicking anywhere else" popups belong in any iteration of Photoshop, but if it matters I'm using CC 24.5.

Please save the lecture. I'm not really able to be persuaded on this.

Yes, I've been a commerical creative for 15+ years. Yes, I know the first things about visual art's tech lineage (!). Yes, I understand the profit-maximizing potential of a "make art" button - an appeal quite lost on me unfortunately, as I enjoy each step of the process and have long moved past the desire/need to cram each quarter with clients who wouldn't notice if I outsourced to a machine. I'm not a photog (a digital painter) so the shortcuts aren't applicable to my practice, but if they were I still wouldn't be interested.

Your post doesn't offer any new points or perspectives that I haven't heard a bunch already; I still just disagree that the convenience is even remotely worth it for the environmental costs and ethical questions.

I'm not gonna pretend to police anybody else's practice, obviously everyone will do whatever they want with their work, up to and including choosing *not to do it* and having the computer do it instead. That isn't gonna be me though - no matter how many emails, popups, or PPC ads you pay for - and I'm making sure Adobe knows it. Not only is this suite of "features" not providing value to me, it's driving me away. I'm just one customer, feedback is all I can do.

[AlanGilbertson]

Well, at least we can dispense with the envirnomental concern. Firefly runs on AWS, and AWS has been carbon neutral for more than a year: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/sustainability/amazon-renewable-energy-goal. Adobe is working to reduce their carbon footprint, but currently is less green than Firefly and other AWS-hosted services.

We've established that most of the ethical concern is based on the practices of companies other than Adobe, so we're just down to a philosophical aversion to generative AI "art," which many of us share. That doesn't stop the tools from being professionally useful.

No one, I hope, is suggesting that you not hold strong opinions on this subject. Opinions should be based on facts, however, otherwise they are just bigotry.