Adobe’s top technologist on what makes an AI tool good enough to launch

Adobe CTO Ely Greenfield breaks down Adobe’s generative AI tools and the bar to shipping them.

Adobe entered the modern era of generative AI a full year behind others, and the company continues moving forward with Firefly at a conservative pace. It’s a strategy you could criticize—or argue is by design. Adobe needs to push the boundaries of media without breaking the tools used everyday by its creative customers like graphic designers and video editors.

While Adobe first debuted Firefly tools in Photoshop in 2023, it took about a year for them to be any good. Now, it’s upping the ante by going from generating still imagery to motion.