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You can very easily turn this off but I take your point.

human art is ultimately derivative of earlier human art, sure. i don't think anyone would successfully argue against that. but i think there's a fundamental difference in that AI is simply regurgitating a perfect synthesis of what it was trained on (perfect meaning it cannot deviate from the dataset). a human being cannot do that. even if you are copying a master's work exactly, you are interpreting it on the way in based on your own understanding of color, sound, or even metaphysical concepts like meaning and emotion. You are creating a derivative, but still unique work even when you copy a work as best you can. And I think this is where the 'soul' of art lies and why it's NOT the same and should not be treated as such. If AI tries to copy an artwork, the copy is flawless.

I recently dumped Adobe, too. The TOS change was the last straw.

Bravo.... This is inspiration to pull the plug I've been needing to cut.

Just canceled membership today. Then came across your video. Yes, all this is far too intrusive and violates your right to something that is your property. Thank you.

Beautifully explained. Thanks a lot was the entire explanation. This was really insightful

“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.” - George Orwell

Amen, brother!

About a year ago I was sitting in traffic at a red light when I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a huge Lexus SUV barreling towards me with a driver who had her eyes glued to her phone. I thought* _oh shit, this is it_ and all of the sudden I heard screeching and the thing stopped a few inches from my bumper. No one was more surprised than the lady who was 'driving' the car. While I don't need nannies in my car or on my software to tell me what to do, I am only here to type this because someone else did. Adobe has lost me with farming my data for their AI but when it comes to cars, the more nannies, the better.

That is a nice, clear, and precise explanation. Thanks!

My experience of Adobe is that it makes overpriced buggy tat. I’ve always avoided where possible.

Great vid. It's all about control and I am not interested in being controlled.

Remember the 'cloud' is actually someone else's computer

I don't have the expertise and longevity that you had with Adobe. I'm much younger than you, but I remember even 20 years ago, Adobe was more reasonable. I did some graphic design for signatures and avatars on Photoshop for some internet forums I was a part of in the early 2000's. It was fun. Adobe single handedly killed Flash. You were probably too old in the 2000's to bother with Flash games, but for us Millennial kids they were fun. It had gotten to the point where I was basically pirating Adobe products. I don't encourage pirating for obvious reasons and neither should most anybody else, but I wasn't willing to put up with their ridiculous prices. Now there is no need for that, because there are alternatives that are much better. Thanks for the video. Probably long overdue, but it's one people need to hear about regardless.

I'd think that adobe would learn from thing but I don't think they would. The greed is just too strong.

I've never paid a cent of subscription to Adobe nor Autodesk products. The day they went to "subscription" mode only, I was out. Subscription is against my religion. There is a ton of reasonable AND FREE alternative software out there, to cover all your needs for audiovisual media production. Adobe and Autodesk are two greedy corporations that buy all the nice software they can find, fill it with a shitload of bloatware, and make you pay for it, constantly reminding you that they own you. It's pure Mafia style, so do not comply!

Speaking about soullessness, AI can never generate an appropriate logo. No matter how many briefs you give, it can never have the intuition to connect some seemingly unrelated things into one idea. Sure, a nice and "right" logo they can have, but none that can move or drive consumers towards the logo. Vision, intuition, common emotion, historical awareness, fervor, etc. Only human artists have that.

too bad for the little rant about climate change…

I pretty much agree with you on all levels in this video.

Its a business model designed so that users will not develop skills & be dependent to their "tools". Everything will be easy but it will be them who will be doing it not the user.

Couldn't agree more about not liking software or automobiles (or many other cases) doing things for me that I can, and would rather, do myself. Although I do use cruise control a lot after initial reluctance many years ago.

i'm currently studying graphic design and we HAVE to use adobe during the course. obviously, i don't want to. i'm incredibly glad i've been using Krita for most of my illustrative work, it's an amazing free program, and i wouldn't want ANY of the work i've produced in Krita to be available for Adobe to use for who knows what. i'm incredibly proud of most works i've produced, and they are MY works. i'm curious if my school is going to do anything about it, but i highly doubt it. even with a discount for student use, i'm still paying like 140/150 euros per year. it's laggy, crashes constantly(krita also does on occasion, but it's FREE), keeps shoving unnecessary shit in my face and is overall just super clunky to use. i'm honestly considering just pirating adobe altogether. i do not want to support this shitty company any further. what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours. keep your grubby, cheetodust covered corporate fingers off of my hard work!

"I don't need you when I come to a stop to turn off to save the environment. You've decided on some 'flawed insincere climate data' that you're going to force me to save the world." If your ideas about the environment are anything like your ideas on software then let's just agree that your analytical aptitude is laughable! You're leaning into conspiracy theory rhetoric as a desperate attempt to attract people to your platform. I've heard similar critiques that are voiced far more intelligently and without the inherent misinformation mixed in.

Back in the early 2000's I realised that, as a software engineer, I was pulling the knowledge of the top mind in a specific domain and turning it to code. That made everyone who used the software at that domain be as good as the top minds. But my next thought was that the software never feels bored, curious or anything else the "to minds" did. It just froze knowledge in time. And yet people trusted it so much that they have the software all the authority to take care of business. Hence all the domain experts start to deskill. And that was before "AI", which i believe it's misspelt UB (Unpredictable Behaviour) Us humans... We are finding very creative ways of outsourcing the human experience to machines

Is Adobe claiming the content of pdf documents is theirs or will they in the future?

We have similar background and age and I too have spent a life with Adobe software in my arsenal, particularly after the end of Macromedia. I was ready to sever my ties with them and was looking at the more recent improvements of Affinity (I had their initial releases but then was too embedded in the Adobe ecosystem to actually use half-baked tools)… But when they announced the Canva acquisition I was left disheartened, because all companies start behaving the same when they become large enough. I worry that when their aggressive marketing taking advantage of the Adobe backlash ends, we will face other issues with them too. They could even make the purchased software disappear, forcing us into a Canva subscription and starting all over again. And where this will leave us?

It is the same complaints and same outrage every few years. Adobe will remain a topnotch software. You guys are just overreacting to what seemed like a normal rule they added. Every other creation software company will follow their lead because that's the only way no one abuses the cloud services and generative tools in the coming future.

I need to support it for some of my clients. The CC suite is a bloaty mess that needs repairs semi-regularly, hangs, etc. Before the clients added it to their stack, everything ran fine. Anyone thinking about, consider the alternatives too before going down this shitty rabbit hole.

Guys, you are having issues with yourselves, not with Adobe. You have to accept that the world is changing quickly, and Adobe is following this change-whether with AI, pricing, marketing, or modern strategies. Adobe is a company that makes $250 billion a year. Your opinion is biased by your personal resistance to accepting what the future offers. You mentioned that you are not against AI, but your reluctance to use creative tools to enhance your creativity suggests otherwise. LOL. If there are tools that offer better creativity and shortcuts, you can choose not to use them, but it doesn’t mean they are not valuable. AI will not come up with an idea for you; it will provide solutions to your problems. Not using AI in today’s creative work is like refusing to use basic tools in the 20th century and insisting on driving a train on coal because it has a soul. LOL. Accept the fact that there is no going back and that AI technology will always surround you from now on. It’s like refusing to learn more elements in the periodic table. Get over it, guys. Plus, there is no professional-level alternative in many cases, and every professional knows this is true. Maybe there is something for someone who occasionally opens Photoshop once a month, but take this seriously. If you are paying for the software, you are a client who relies on it, and 70 euros per month for this tool is actually nothing in today’s world. With one hour of work, you should be able to make enough money to pay for this suite of software for all the creative things you do. If you can’t make this money, then move on or change your business strategy. Simple as that.

Thank you, its a different perspective than mine, I don't have problem with the AI (although I am not using it), my problem with Adobe is about sluggish software which become larger and less optimized with every new version. Before the cloud it worked like a charm, have PS2018 work flawlessly at my old Core2Duo laptop with 4 GB of ram, while PS2024 is slow like a snail even on latest computers. bugs remain in different Adobe programs despite they (are they) are for the professionals who should make money with those. Regarding the Adobe - Adobe stock is really expensive and despite we are paying for it here in Bosnia every time I want to download the image page report that the license can not be obtained (it allow the download after that) because I am not in some western country despite Adobe happily took our money for it ... I am speechless about it. I remember Adobe from the 90s, we all loved the Adobe, it had heart and soul and we was amazed with their products, during the time they become nothing more than a greedy corporation (monthly subscriptions!? we cant even purchase those using credit cards here, we have to contact the Adobe dealers - frustrating and humiliating! ).... BTW That Photoshop AI bar can be turned off in Window / Contextual Task Bar - I hate it too. Thank you for the video Mike, really like your way of presenting the points and way of thinking, best!

I dumped Adobe a few years ago, I use DaVinci resolve, GIMP, and PDFpro… all very cheap to buy a license for or even free to use, I don’t use Adobe at all any more, and the fact that people accept that premier constantly crashes as “normal” is a joke, so glad I stopped using it, I had so many issues with it crashing, resolve has NEVER crashed, not even once ! I never agreed to the subscription principle either, I want to own the right to use it, not rent it.

I feel you Sir! It's no longer fun to do anything with adobe.

Similar to my story. I’m tired of having money continually sucked out of my account every month.

Mike, I'd love for you to create a video on the downfall of agencies and the media industry in general. Many former industry elites (I once knew) commanded huge salaries, perks etc are now driving for UberEats. Content production has become so inexpensive and easy that clients are slashing budgets, knowing they can get more for less. Think it would make an interesting video Cheers!

Well said, I feel exactly the same way. Very well articulated. I'm out too.

When you’re role is dumbed down and deskilled, you are easily replaced. It’s happening everywhere. But yeah, I too f*cking hate Adobe and I’m old enough to remember when it seemed inconceivable that Quark would ever be knocked off its perch. But it happened.

I’ve used it for decades no more

Designers need to take responsibility for some of this. 80% of designers spend a lot of time pushing Adobe: "It's the industry standard, nothing comes close...yada yada". This naturally created a huge imbalance in the design space, imbalance that forced companies like Affinity to sell out simply because it couldn't attract the revenue to build the features many people wanted. Adobe is too big now; and the number of people defecting probably won't hurt the bottom line enough for a rethink. On the upside, this new rush of customers may finally help Affinity deliver some of those big features to make the programs even stronger.

This Entire video... Well Said.

Great move and great arguments.

I would support Affinity if they weren’t as corrupt as Adobe. They screwed over all the people who helped launch their brand as the Adobe killer, for the people etc. They offered their product free forever, buy the application and upgrades are free. Then they brought out a second version and lo and behold, charged people for it. They bamboozled everyone and wormed their way out of it with semantics, saying ‘updates ‘were free? reallly? Aren’t updates usually free? Soo essentially v1.2. Is free but v2 is paid. Thanks for that. After I talked a bunch of people into signing up. When this was raised by the many people they screwed on social media they deleted all the comments and pretended the problem didn’t exist. I took dozens of screenshots of those comments and then they disappeared. The only comments they left on there were comments by a group of nerdy fanboys who were most likely staff saying how great it all was. Affinity will never get my support because of unethical business practices right from the start. I was ripped off by buying their full suite only a few days before the ‘upgrade’. A lot of people were not refunded, and their response in a mail was well you can use the one you bought.

Side point but I know how to get rid of those tool tips. Good luck out there. czcams.com/video/DfOoRsu5tBA/video.html

Good discussion on this subject, however, it comes across as a bit narrow sighted in the context of society as a whole. You are suggesting that creators or artists enjoy enjoy the privilege of a more ephemeral status than any other tradesmen in society. Literally dozens, if not hundreds, of professions have been made completely obsolete or severely marginalized by technology over the past 100 years. Every single one of these professions put their soul into their work. The pleasure of the fruits of the work of these tradesmen has been swiftly traded for convenience and affordability by society. Sorry to say, but “creators” as such don’t stand a chance. You are just at the tail end of a long progression towards efficiency. And you have accepted that yourselves by basically basing your everyday life on accepting the benefits brought on by efficiency in almost everything you do. Like it or not, you have to move on. Most people have been forced to do so already ages ago. You don’t stand a chance fighting the influence of AI in visual creations. Appealing to the unique nature of human beings based on religious beliefs rings empty. None of that has made any difference in societal developments in the past 100 years, to think that it’s a decisive feature for creators is just naive.

Adobe is literally the most predatory company on earth. I pray affinity suite takes off

Agreed. I’m tired of them. They’ve had my money for a few years and the software is now so bloated that much of what I’m paying for is irrelevant. The AI content is tacky. They’ve lost their way. And I’ve just taken delivery of a new car and I get totally the analogy!

Hey Mike... Firrst video... Probably last.... But let the whiners whine. You used it because it made something easier. Life is short you can save a little time.

I was going to get a Adobe Photo subscription today but changed my mind when I read this in the terms. You are supposed to give away the rights of all your photos to Adobe and you will not get paid. You will not have anything to say on how Adobe will use your pictures. 4.6 Licenses to Your Materials. You grant Adobe a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to adapt, display, distribute, modify, perform, publish, reproduce, translate, and use Your Materials for the purpose of operating, marketing and improving the Services and enabling your use of the Services. Further, Adobe may maintain archive or backup copies of Your Materials pursuant to Section 11 (Investigations).

Ya know. There is a timer on your phone. Just saved you $16.00.

I'm thinking about switching to Affinity, after 8 Years of Adobe Subscription.

I hate it when Photoshop assumes what I'm doing. A lot of times I just want to fix a detail of an outfit and he blocks it claiming I'm doing something that goes against the guidelines. that is, we are not free to create with these crap AIs