AI software clones are coming for big-name companies like Adobe
A developer and team have used AI-assisted reverse engineering to create free, open-source alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud apps, including a Photoshop-style editor called Photocraft. The project could appeal to subscribers frustrated by Adobe’s fees because it imitates familiar interfaces and may reduce the effort of switching to free software.
Photocraft can handle tasks such as resizing, masking and colour adjustments, but it lacks advanced features, cannot open native PSD files and has been reported to delete images, merge layers and crash. The team says its apps are written in Rust and designed to be more performant. The article also describes REA, a tool for analysing and recreating software, and notes that AI-enabled reverse engineering is raising unresolved questions about copyright and patents.
In short
- AI helped create free, familiar alternatives to Adobe apps.
- Photocraft has bugs and cannot open Photoshop PSD files.
- Faster reverse engineering is intensifying copyright and patent debates.
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The case for
AI-assisted open-source alternatives could give users a cheaper route away from costly subscriptions, especially for routine editing, and familiar interfaces may make switching easier. Supporters can argue that reverse engineering encourages competition, broadens access to creative tools and lets developers build on ideas users already understand.
The case against
Critics can argue that close imitation raises unresolved copyright and patent questions, and that copying a familiar interface may cross legal or ethical boundaries even when the code is newly written. They may also stress that these early tools lack important features and have reliability problems, so presenting them as substitutes could mislead users and weaken trust in creative software.
Explained simply
Adobe Creative Cloud is a subscription service that includes widely used design and image-editing apps, such as Photoshop. Some people look for free alternatives, but switching can mean learning new tools and workflows.
Photocraft is an open-source image editor designed to resemble Photoshop, and it is part of a wider effort to recreate familiar software with help from AI. It can do some common editing tasks, but it lacks advanced features and has been reported to lose work or crash.
The effort also raises questions about the rules for copying software: copyright and patents may apply to different parts of a program, and how those rules apply to AI-assisted recreations is still unsettled.