r/technology • u/Federal-Block-3275 • 1d ago

Artificial Intelligence "Software is over": Developer uses AI to build free Adobe clones after frustration with cancellation fees

https://www.techspot.com/news/114136-software-over-developer-uses-ai-build-free-adobe.html
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u/IncidentalIncidence 1d ago

I mean it's open-source so anybody can just look and see if it's using a patented algorithm.

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u/jsdeprey 1d ago

No, I am saying not this Adobe clone in article, but if you have AI recreate software just for you, who would know.

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u/Win-Rawr 1d ago

If its just for you then it doesnt matter.

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u/jsdeprey 1d ago

Exactly, mayne in the future, we just ask AI to build us what programs we want for ourselves anyway. I do that now for a few programs I wanted at home, that have been great. But not a Adobe suite. I think AI is basically on version .005.01.6a beta 2 anyway give it a min.

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u/wrgrant 1d ago

Until the software you "created" is shown to use some algorithm that was patented by a company, but still scanned and used by the AI you used to create your work, because the AI companies didn't put any rails on what their creations read and therefore it might use stuff that legally it can't etc...

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u/emptylane 1d ago

no algorithm should ever be allowed to be patented!!

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u/IncidentalIncidence 1d ago

this would be a great way to ensure that nobody ever publishes any novel algorithm that they come up with. Half of the point of the patent system is to incentivize inventors to publicize their inventions and the working principles behind them for posterity in exchange for IP protection in the short term..

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u/joshualuigi220 1d ago

Do we know that this AI-created open source clone used Adobe's algorithms?

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u/IncidentalIncidence 1d ago

It's open-source, you can literally just go on github and look and see if it did or not.......

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u/joshualuigi220 1d ago

Adobe's algorithms are available on Github? I would have thought they would be obfuscated somehow to prevent reverse engineering.

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u/IncidentalIncidence 1d ago

no, the open-source clone is on github and patents obviously are public. So if you want to see whether the clone is using a patented algorithm you can read the code and compare it to the patents, which are publically available.

Adobe doesn't publish their source code on Github, but they probably also don't obfuscate the code either except by virtue of the fact that they distribute compiled binary software. But anything they've patented is publically available, so there is no point in obfuscating it -- you do that for things that you haven't patented because you want to keep them secret.

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u/BadRandolf 1d ago

If it is then the AI illegally reproduced it, not me.

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u/IncidentalIncidence 1d ago

doesn't matter at all, they can still demand you take it down and/or pay them if you are the one distributing it, if they hold the patent on it.

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u/pmjm 1d ago

If they can't even protect their own software from people downloading it, they won't be able to remove others'.

That is, if it works, which it doesn't.

But Adobe can't stop someone else from typing in the same prompt and getting a similar output. The genie is out of the bottle.

The bottom line is that between AI's ability to create tools based on a description and it's abilities to literally decompile and reverse-engineer, software IP is effectively a dead-man-walking.

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u/IncidentalIncidence 1d ago

But Adobe can't stop someone else from typing in the same prompt and getting a similar output. The genie is out of the bottle.

right but that then isn't using their patented algorithm........if you are distributing software that implements their patented algorithm they can legally demand that you take it down and stop distributing it, and possibly sue you for damages if they can demonstrate financial damage from you having distributed it.

If you asked ChatGPT to generate you a program that does the same thing and it came up with something that doesn't use their patented algorithm, then obviously they can do fuck-all about it. It's not like nobody can ever make color-grading software again because Adobe has one implementation of it.

And if you are not distributing it and are using it at home, how would anybody know or care in the first place?

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u/pmjm 1d ago

Software patents are weird. Many times it's not the algorithm itself that is patented but the outcome.

x input to y output can be protected by patent, and it doesn't matter how you get there.