Adobe Stock has removed a collection of AI-generated images in the style of Ansel Adams’ landscape photography after the late photographer’s estate slammed Adobe for its conduct.
On Friday, a message shared to Ansel Adams’ Threads account tagged Adobe with the message: “You are officially on our last nerve with this behavior.” It included a screenshot from Adobe Stock showing a series of black-and-white images in the distinct style of the photography master, but they were AI-generated.
Adobe responded to the message from Adams’ account thanking it for flagging the issue and stating that the image “go against our Generative AI content policy.”
“We’re glad our team was able to remove the content. We reached out via IG DM to share a way to get in touch directly in the future,” the message added.
But Adams’ estate continued to berate Adobe for its practices, raging that previous appeals had fallen upon deaf ears.
“We invite you to become proactive about complaints like ours and stop putting the onus on individual artists/artists’ estates to continuously police our IP on your platform, on your terms,” Adams’ Threads account writes. “It’s past time to stop wasting resources that don’t belong to you.”
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Many in the comments grumbled about generative AI and slammed the general copyright issues, but Adams’ estate says that copyright isn’t the issue it has with Adobe Stock selling “Ansel Adams-style” photos.
“We strenuously object to the unauthorized use of his name to sell products of any kind, including digital products, and this includes AI-generated output—regardless of whether his name has been used as a prompt [sic], or whether a given model has been trained on his work. Those are separate issues.”
The Verge notes that Adobe Stock allows AI images to be sold on its platform but specifically prohibits images that were “created using prompts containing other artist names, or created using prompts otherwise intended to copy another artist.”
It’s not the first time Adobe Stock has gotten into hot water over its AI images for sale, PetaPixel reported how Adobe was selling AI images of war in Gaza which were being passed off as real on some parts of the internet.