Adobe has gone all-in on AI-based image generation and editing, introducing AI tools across its range of software, and most impressively, it’s done so in a very timely manner. Ahead of next week's Adobe Max conference, the company has teased another artificial intelligence feature that will make it incredibly easy to modify photos.
Adobe has released a short video previewing Project Stardust, an AI-based photo editing engine that can identify individual objects in photos and allow users to manipulate them like Photoshop layers. The company plans to fully reveal this feature and other AI tools at its Max conference next week.
The video begins with a photo of a woman holding a suitcase, and the software instantly identifies and selects the pixels that make up the suitcase, which traditionally requires slow and careful manual use of the lasso tool. Users can then move or remove the suitcase and its shadow via a simple menu of commands while keeping the background consistent. Then, highlight the space around the woman's empty hand and type "yellow flower" into the text prompt, and the system will insert a bouquet of yellow flowers, offering a variety of AI-generated choices.
Another example shows Stardust modifying a man's clothing item by item in another photo. With a few clicks, his orange jacket transformed into a black leather jacket that fit him perfectly and matched his posture. Click again to select his pants, and the text prompt of "black jeans" will generate matching items on him.
Stardust also intelligently adjusts to less precise commands. A button labeled "Remove Distractions" instantly removes a blurry figure in the distant background of a photo of a couple.
Adobe recently launched a series of new tools for Photoshop and other products that use the company's new Firefly artificial intelligence library. In addition to manipulating objects in an image, Firefly lets Photoshop generate new backgrounds and extend the image beyond its original boundaries.
They also previewed Firefly's use in video editing. The software can use text prompts to change the mood of a video, organize storyboards, insert graphics, and more.
Somewhat similarly, Google’s recently released Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones will also include AI-based image editing capabilities when they go on sale on October 12. "Magic Eraser" allows users to cleanly move and delete individual objects in a photo; "Best Shot" combines elements from multiple similar photos to change the facial expressions of the subject to create an ideal version; and "Zoom Enhancement" attempts to achieve features usually only achieved in movies.
As multiple technology companies add powerful image-processing artificial intelligence into the hands of ordinary users, every photo has the potential to fall into the "Ship of Theseus" dilemma (Theseus Paradox is a paradox about identity in the field of metaphysics. The first-century Greek writer Plutarch proposed this Question: If the wood in Theseus's ship is gradually replaced until all the wood is no longer the original wood, is the ship still the same ship? This type of question is now called "Theseus' ship". Some philosophers think it is the same object.)