Adobe employees slam the company over AI controversy: ‘Let’s avoid becoming like IBM’

“If our goal is truly to prioritize our users’ best interests (which, to be honest, I sometimes question), it’s astonishing how poor our communication can be,” one of the people wrote in Slack. “The general perception is: Adobe is an evil company that will do whatever it takes to F its users.”

“Let’s avoid becoming like IBM, which seems to be surviving primarily due to its entrenched market position and legacy systems,” this Adobe employee added.

Creators on alert

The is the latest controversy sparked by the emergence of generative AI. The technology is based on AI models that are trained on mountains of data, including text, images, audio, and video. It’s unclear how this information is accessed, and whether the creators of the data can opt out or get paid.

This has put all types of creators on alert for signs that their work is being used to create AI tools that could ultimately compete against them. Adobe’s customers, which include graphic designers and other creative workers, are at the center of these debates.

‘May analyze your content’

The latest uproar largely stems from vague wording Adobe used in its updated Terms of Use, which said the company “may analyze your content” using machine learning technology to “improve our Services and Software.”

“Our automated systems may analyze your Content and Creative Cloud Customer Fonts (defined in section 3.10 (Creative Cloud Customer Fonts) below) using techniques such as machine learning in order to improve our Services and Software and the user experience,” the updated language said.

The backlash was swift, with some creators threatening on social media to cancel their Adobe subscriptions.

As public outcry grew, Adobe responded with an initial blog post last week that explained it needed to access some data to perform certain unrelated functions. It also said Adobe does not train AI models on customer content.

That blog post failed to quell the uproar. So Adobe followed up with another blog post on Monday that reiterated the company’s position.

“We’ve never trained generative AI on customer content, taken ownership of a customer’s work, or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements. Nor were we considering any of those practices as part of the recent Terms of Use update,” the second blog post said.

‘Disheartening’

Adobe employees said in the Slack channel that even after these blog posts, the company continues to face criticism from the creator community.

One employee suggested that Adobe should come up with “a long-term communication and marketing plan outside of blog posts,” and meet with the company’s most prominent critics on YouTube and social media to “correct the misinformation head-on.”

“Watching the misinformation spread on social media like wildfire is really disheartening,” this person wrote in Slack. “Still, a loud ‘F Adobe’ and ‘Cancel Adobe’ rhetoric is happening within the independent creator community that needs to be addressed.”

A third worker said the internal communication review process might be broken. “What are we doing meaningfully to prevent this or is this only acted on when called out?” the person wrote.

Adobe leaders seem aware of this feedback. Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief strategy officer, wrote on X on Monday that an update to its service terms was overdue.

“As technology evolves, every co’s terms of use must also evolve to directly address new concerns on creators’ minds. We should have done this sooner, but team is committed to getting it right,” Belsky wrote.

‘Healthier’ communication

An Adobe spokesperson told BI the company has an open culture and plans to roll out updates to its Terms of Use by June 18.

“At Adobe, there is no ambiguity in our stance, our commitment to our customers, and innovating responsibly in this space. We welcome the opportunity to clarify our terms and our commitments and address concerns with our customers and community,” the spokesperson said in an email statement.

Last week, Adobe’s communications team wrote in the same internal Slack channel that employees should refrain from directly addressing the Terms of Use controversy externally. Instead, they should refer to the company’s blog post, it said.

Some employees applauded Adobe’s effort to use language that is easier to understand in the blog post.

But they also said Adobe needed to get to the root cause of the problem, instead of just engaging in one-off efforts when such issues arise. They pointed out that Adobe faced similar controversies in the past over allegations of charging early termination fees and deploying “dark patterns” to trick users into signing a 12 month contract.

One of the people suggested reviewing how external messages are formulated at Adobe and not being afraid of changing things that don’t currently work.

“It will have the consequence of making any future communications healthier,” this person wrote.

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