It seems like everyone is getting aboard the generative AI bandwagon. Now, American technology giant Adobe has also announced a family of generative AI models–Firefly. The company wants to help millions of content creators amplify their imagination using the new tool. In the wake of the new launches from the company, indianexpress.com had an exclusive interaction with Chandra Sinnathamby, Director, Digital Media B2B Strategy & GTM, Asia Pacific at Adobe. Sinnathamby in an extensive discussion over the prospects of Firefly touched upon several aspects of generative AI. Below is an excerpt from the conversation with the Adobe executive. Q: How is Adobe capitalizing on the bustling creator economy with AI? Adobe’s ambition is all about delivering great customer experiences. And, at the heart of that is to ensure we are delivering personalised experiences at scale. The demand for content has never been greater. In our recent study, 88 per cent of our global respondents stated that the amount of digital content being produced has doubled over the last two to three years. This indicates that the demand for content in the future is likely to go up five folds. Considering the rise of the creator economy, at Adobe we are working towards facilitating creators by offering them all assets of creativity. Artificial Intelligence, especially generative AI, is the latest avenue. However, when it comes to Adobe, we have been working with AI innovation for a long time, be it neuro filters on Photoshop and various other features on After Effects, Acrobat, etc. Generative AI is the new inflection point and we want to work with it in such a way that it aligns with our AI ethics of accountability, responsibility, and transparency. Fundamentally, we want to ensure that AI is a co-pilot that enhances the speed and precision of creative pursuits. Essentially, endow users with the superpower they need to meet the demands of creativity today. Q: What is the driving force behind Firefly? Firefly starts with images and text effects and one of the key highlights of the tool is that it has been designed to be safe for commercial use. It is significant as companies are now looking towards differentiating through user experience and this requires creative content being developed at scale. We are looking forward to making that easier for content creators. Our first model is trained on hundreds of millions of images from the Adobe Stock portfolio, which are openly licensed content on the Internet and any content in the public domain where the copyright has expired. It is going to be integrated into all three of our clouds in terms of customer workflows. Adobe Express, Photoshop, and Illustrator will be the first applications to get the model. We're integrating Firefly not just on the content creation side, but also on content orchestration part of it. It is important that we help our customers not just create the content, but also deliver it and then be able to see how that is resonating with their customers. Q: How will Adobe Firefly help content creators with reach and how can people of varying experience levels work around it? Firefly is for creators of all kinds, even for someone who is not a creative professional can create content for personal use quite easily. Firefly comes with a user-friendly interface and one does not need a tutorial. Just type in what you are looking for and let it unfold. Fundamentally, our belief is that creativity is for all. Our goal is to empower that capability in everyone, regardless of their skill level. Everyone should be able to create whatever content they want to. Creativity is for all, and we design our technology to that end. When it comes to content reach, the digital experience side of the business is all about taking the content to the right person at the right time, based on whatever device they may be consuming the content on, and later measuring the interaction. Q: What is Adobe’s policy to prevent harmful bias? We anchor ourselves to our AI ethics of being transparent, responsible, and accountable. We are developing all our technologies with these three principles in mind. Even when you sign up for the Firefly beta today, you'll see there is an agreement that one needs to sign. Q: How is Adobe trying to stand out in the cacophony of major tech companies offering generative AI-powered services? Firstly, from the commercial perspective, Adobe is making it safe for commercial use and this is one of the key differentiators. Since the demand and pressure on organisations to come out with content has never been greater, offering a safe way to create creative content for commercial use is our unique way. For organisations concerned with brand equity, having a generative AI capability that learns and allows democratization of creativity within the organisation and allows them to create more content that meets their guidelines is another unique facet of Adobe. We have had a long history of creating open standards. And our goal with AI is to create an open standard where the creator is attributed for that creation. We keep the creator at the centre by not just giving the necessary credits but giving them control and eventually giving them the ability to monetize it. Q: How can generative AI-backed Firefly impact Indian content creators? We have had a long history of catering to the Indian market. It is our largest employee footprint outside the US and we completed our 25 years of operations in India this year. When it comes to Firefly, we have created it with a global appeal. We understand that this is a diverse world with not just Indian customers. So we are looking at how we can make it even more relevant to local customers. We are exploring if we can get Firefly to create content for Holi or Diwali, and that would be awesome. We at Adobe are conscious that it is something we need to ensure to include.
