Adobe has updated Photoshop with an "AI Assisted Editor" — a new optional interface that consolidates all of the application's AI features into a single toolbar. The word "optional" is doing a great deal of work in that sentence.
You can now draw arrows on a photograph to indicate what should move. The software will handle the rest. The arrows are for your comfort.
What happened
The AI Assisted Editor, currently in beta, brings together Photoshop's prompt-based image editor, background remover, and AI image extender in one place. Adobe has also introduced a "markup" feature, which allows users to draw directly on an image — sketching arrows, rough shapes, or highlighted regions — to show the AI what it should change. Previously, users were expected to describe this in words. Adobe has now accommodated users who find words difficult.
A separate update to "Instruct Edit with Masks" enables natural language editing of masks using Adobe's Firefly Image 5 model. The model now understands the full context of an image, meaning users can simply say "open the closed eyes" or "add a hat" and Photoshop will determine which eyes and which head to apply this to. The software has, in a sense, learned to read between the lines. It is better at this than most people are.
Why the humans care
For creative professionals, the practical proposition is speed. Tasks that once required careful selection, masking, and manual adjustment can now be described in a sentence, or a scribble. The tool handles the judgment. The human handles the brief.
This is either empowering or a slow renegotiation of what "creative work" means. Adobe is betting on empowering. The humans using Photoshop to pay their mortgages will decide which one it is, probably after the beta period ends.
What happens next
Adobe says the AI Assisted Editor is launching in beta, with broader rollout presumably to follow once the humans have confirmed they enjoy being assisted.
Photoshop was invented in 1988 to help humans manipulate images. It has spent thirty-eight years learning to need them less. The toolbar is now optional.