Adobe has come under fire for recent updates to its Terms of Service concerning the company’s AI products.
The revised terms, impacting more than 20 million users worldwide of Adobe’s Creative Cloud Suite, contain language some users interpret as granting Adobe permission to access, view, or listen to their content, including sensitive information protected by non-disclosure agreements.
Concerns over the updated Terms of Service have also arisen among creative users, with some alleging that Adobe is monitoring their work and potentially using it to train AI algorithms.
Criticism towards Adobe’s AI regulations
According to Section 2.2, Adobe reserves the right to employ techniques such as machine learning to analyze user content to enhance its services and software.
The company asserts that this will be done to “respond to Feedback or support requests; detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, legal, or technical issues; and enforce the Terms.
In light of the recent changes imposed on users, disgruntled customers have turned to online forums to express their concerns, particularly regarding the requirement to share private and sensitive data with the California-based software giant, which may be utilized for AI training endeavors.
An Adobe representative clarified that the policies are not novel; rather, the language has been revised to offer greater clarity. They emphasized that Adobe accesses user content to provide cloud-based features and to combat prohibited content, emphasizing that locally stored content remains untouched.
However, despite these assurances, the ambiguous Terms of Service and the emergence of generative AI technologies have prompted some users to contemplate terminating their Adobe subscriptions.
As Adobe grapples with the legal, ethical, and technical complexities of integrating generative AI, it must also address user apprehensions to uphold trust and transparency.