Enlarge / The Content Credentials "CR" logo presented in front of an AI-generated image provided by Adobe. (credit: Adobe)

On Tuesday, Adobe announced a new symbol designed to indicate when content has been generated or altered using AI tools, reports The Verge , as well as verifying the provenance of non-AI media. The symbol, created in collaboration with other industry players as part of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), aims to bring transparency to media creation and reduce the impact of misinformation or deepfakes online. Whether it will actually do so in practice is uncertain.

The Content Credentials symbol, which looks like a lowercase "CR" in a curved bubble with a right angle in the lower-right corner, reflects the presence of metadata stored in a PDF, photo, or video file that includes information about the content's origin and the tools (both AI and conventional) used in its creation. The information is automatically added by supporting digital cameras and AI image generator Adobe Firefly , or it can be inserted by Photoshop and Premiere. It will also soon be supported by Bing Image Creator.

If credentialed media is presented in a compatible app or using a JavaScript wrapper on the web, users click the "CR" icon in the upper-right corner to view a drop-down menu containing image information. Or they can upload a file to a special website to read the metadata.

Enlarge / An AI-generated vector graphic of a barbarian and a landscape generated with Adobe Illustrator. (credit: Benj Edwards / Adobe)

On Tuesday, Adobe announced major updates to AI image synthesis features across several products, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Express. The updates include three new generative AI models—Firefly 2, Firefly Design Model, and Firefly Vector Model—which improve its previous offerings and add new capabilities. With the vector model, Adobe is notably launching its first text-to-vector AI image generator.

It's been a busy year for generative AI, and Adobe has not been content to sit it out. In March, the graphic design software giant debuted its text-to-image synthesis model called Firefly, which it billed as an ethical alternative to Stable Diffusion and Midjourney due to being trained on Adobe Stock imagery only. Firefly can generate novel images based on text descriptions called prompts (i.e., "a scenic vista" or "a beefy-looking barbarian"). The company later brought the technology to Photoshop and web apps, and promised to cover any legal bills that might arise from copyright claims against artwork generated with its tools.

Now, Adobe is extending its reach with a wave of new generative AI features. Adobe's Firefly Image 2 model is an update to its original Firefly AI image generator, which powers Photoshop features like Generative Fill . Adobe claims this new version offers improved image quality, particularly in areas like foliage, skin texture, and facial features. In addition to these enhancements, the Firefly Image 2 model introduces AI-driven editing capabilities that can adjust various photo settings like depth of field and motion blur. A new "Prompt Guidance" feature also aids users in refining the wording of their text descriptions and automatically completes prompts to boost efficiency.

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Big tech companies like Microsoft and Google are grappling with the challenge of turning AI products like ChatGPT into a profitable enterprise, reports The Wall Street Journal. While companies are heavily investing in AI tech that can generate business memos or code, the cost of running advanced AI models is proving a significant hurdle. Some services, like Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, drive significant operational losses.

Generative AI models used for creating text are not cheap to operate. Large language models (LLM) like the ones that power ChatGPT require powerful servers with high-end, energy-consuming chips. For example, we recently cited a Reuters report with analysis that claimed each ChatGPT query may cost 4 cents to run. As a result, Adam Selipsky, the chief executive of Amazon Web Services, told the Journal that many corporate customers are unhappy with the high running costs of these AI models.

The current cost challenge is tied to the nature of AI computations, which often require new calculations for each query, unlike standard software that enjoys economies of scale. This makes flat-fee models for AI services risky, as increasing customer usage can drive up operational costs and lead to potential losses for the company.

Enlarge / An Apple Macintosh Plus along with an original LaserWriter, the printer that helped popularize PostScript Type 1 fonts. (credit: Apple)

If you want to know about the history of desktop publishing, you need to know about Adobe's PostScript fonts. PostScript fonts used vector graphics so that they could look crisp and clear no matter what size they were, and Apple licensed PostScript fonts for the original LaserWriter printer; together with publishing software like Aldus PageMaker, they made it possible to create a file that would look exactly the same on your computer screen as it did when you printed it.

The most important PostScript fonts were so-called "Type 1" fonts, which Adobe initially didn't publish a specification for. From the 1980s up until roughly the early 2000s or so, if you were working in desktop publishing professionally, you were probably using Type 1 fonts.

Other companies didn't want Adobe to have a monopoly on vector-based fonts or desktop publishing, of course; Apple created the TrueType format in the early 90s and licensed it to Microsoft, which used it in Windows 3.1 and later versions. Adobe and Microsoft later collaborated on a new font format called OpenType that could replace both TrueType and PostScript Type 1, and by the mid-2000s , it had been released as an open standard and had become the predominant font format used across most operating systems and software.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Organizations big and small are once again scrambling to patch critical vulnerabilities that are already under active exploitation and cause the kind of breaches coveted by ransomware actors and nation-state spies.

The exploited vulnerabilities—one in Adobe ColdFusion and the other in various Citrix NetScaler products—allow for the remote execution of malicious code. Citrix on Tuesday patched the vulnerabilities, but not before threat actors exploited them . The most critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-3519, lurks in Citrix’s NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway products. It carries a severity rating of 9.8 out of a possible 10 because it allows hackers to execute code remotely with no authentication required.

“This product line is a popular target for attackers of all skill levels, and we expect that exploitation will increase quickly,” researchers from Rapid7, the security firm that detected the attacks, warned Tuesday .