Adobe gets mobile, remote and goes to war with deep fakes

There are also updates across Adobe’s other mobile apps.

Fighting deep fakes

Any enterprise that worries about intellectual property when it comes to logo or packaging design should be pleased to learn of another initiative announced at Max: Adobe’s introduction of an attribution tool inside Adobe Creative Cloud.

To be made initially available in beta versions of Photoshop and Behance, the idea is that designers will be able to embed secure attribution in their work to help prevent the use of deep fakes. Of course, these tools should also help prevent some forms of intellectual property abuse. For a company, it may provide an additional line of defense against image plagiarism.

AI and the future of imaging

Adobe deepened its story around the impact of machine intelligence on imaging, supplementing its existing Sensei AI and machine learning tools with five new ML features: Neural Filters, Sky Replacement, a new Discover tool, and two new Refine Edge Selections.

While these will be invaluable for creative work, they also serve as good illustrations of ways to think of AI, not as some magic silver bullet dispensation tool but as a technology that can be used to augment human capabilities.

Sky Replacement, for example, intelligently (and quickly, at least in demos) separates the sky from the rest of an image, making it much easier to try different skies in a image. Another useful augmentation tool, Discover, surfaces the tools Photoshop thinks you’re most likely to need  while working in an image, while the impressive ML in Aware Refine Edge and Refine Hair really helps select and work with tricky details.

Finally, Neural Filters is a new workspace in which you can work with non-destructive filters to test ideas before applying them to your core image. These include useful skin tone and portrait creation tools, among others.

Tools for remote collaboration

As you might expect, Adobe is reflecting the times. As part of this, the company has put some work into improving remote collaboration. Its own research shows that 82% of creators believe the events of 2020 have forever changed how they create.

Remote collaboration is certainly part of this, and (among other tools) Adobe has introduced an Invite to Edit tool, version support in Cloud documents and the ability to create and distribute design systems and assets — and connect to third-party apps such as Google Workspace using a set of open Library APIs.

Creative Cloud subscribers can download these updates today.