Adobe Pledges to Cover Legal Claims Over AI-Generated Artwork

In a landmark move for the AI industry, Adobe has announced an indemnity clause to protect users of Firefly, its generative AI art creation tool, from potential copyright claims. The assurance is designed to allay enterprise concerns over copyright permissions tied to AI-generated artworks.

With Firefly, Adobe will offer IP indemnity, meaning the company will cover customers against any third-party intellectual property claims arising from the use of Firefly-generated outputs. This commitment underscores Adobe's willingness to shoulder potential legal repercussions if a client incurs a lawsuit related to the use of Firefly-produced content.

Adobe's Chief Strategy Officer, Scott Belsky, discussed the growing concerns among enterprise customers about using generative AI without understanding the specifics of its training data. Belsky emphasized that this unease mirrors the due diligence businesses exhibit when using stock images for commercial campaigns.

Adobe is confident in their indemnity clause as Firefly was trained on Adobe Stock images, which the company has comprehensive permissions to use, in addition to openly licensed and public domain content. This strategy, as opposed to training on open internet content, significantly reduces Adobe's risk associated with the indemnity clause.

The move is praised by industry experts like Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research, who hails it as a "brilliant" strategy benefiting both Adobe and creators contributing to Adobe Stock. Adobe's indemnification, however, is limited to Firefly-generated output, excluding additional content that could infringe copyrights.

Adobe's indemnification clause serves as a unique insurance policy, aiming to convince cautious customers that using generative AI for commercial purposes is a safe bet. Despite the unsettled nature of copyright cases related to AI-generated art, Adobe's knowledge of the content used for training Firefly allows it to confidently back its customers.