“It is time to cancel Adobe, delete all the apps and programs. Adobe can not be trusted.” 

This was the online rallying cry in response to changes made by the technology company to its otherwise routinely boring terms of service for use of its software. The changes made it seem Adobe now had unfettered access to everything it touched, protected or not, all to train its AI products.

Adobe has long been an essential partner to the creative professions, just the sort of work that feels under siege by voracious data sets being compiled to feed AI programs like ChatGPT – or the company’s own Firefly. Those large language models (LLMs) too often disregarded content protections. When the terms were changed, it seemed to Adobe subscribers that their favorite company was following suit. 

The worst was summarized in this online comment:  “I just cancelled my Adobe license after many years as a customer.”

The storm of protest shined a light on two things: one, AI has put artists on edge and two, moving to adopt, adapt and advance the technology without being clear to those on-edge users is bad business.

The likelihood that Adobe was making such a move was supported by the company’s history of missteps requiring the repair of customer relationships. Take this from The Verge: “Adobe has developed something of an ‘image’ problem as it’s grown over the years, especially among individual creatives who no longer feel the company has their best interests at heart.” The result is what the publication calls “a breakdown of trust.”

Credit to Adobe for moving within a week to address the concerns. In a blog post, it clarified the terms of service changes with a simple, declarative statement: “Your content is yours and will never be used to train any generative AI tool.” But trust is not built on word changes to the terms of service.