Adobe was criticised for selling AI-generated images inspired by the style of the late photographer Ansel Adams.

The Ansel Adams estate publicly rebuked Adobe for selling images generated by AI labelled "Ansel Adams-Style" on Adobe’s stock photo service, despite the company 's guidelines for AI-generated images prohibiting the use of names of people or artists whose work is still in copyright.

The Ansel Adams estate said it had been trying to get Adobe to respond to them about the issue since August 2023, and invited Adobe to proactively address complaints like theirs and to stop putting the responsibility on individual artists or their estates to continuously monitor their intellectual property on Adobe’s platform.

Adobe Stock Vice President Matthew Smith told The Verge that the company generally moderates all “crowdsourced” Adobe Stock assets before they are made available to customers, employing a “variety” of methods that include “an experienced team of moderators who review submissions.” 

Adobe removed the offending listing; however, the incident sparked accusations that Adobe had violated its own policies and was unable to properly moderate its platforms.

It also prompted a broader discussion about the ethics of AI-generated art and its impact on creators.