For far too long, AI has been used by big tech to the detriment of its users. At best, that means shoehorning in features that nobody asked for and slowing down the experience, but at worst, using our data to train yet more models. Adobe says they won’t, but you’ll forgive me for not believing them.
Now, I always take anything done by AI proponents with a pinch of salt because anything positive tends to come served with far more hype than it deserves, but this might well be an exception.
Enter stage left, ArtCraft. The team behind it have been using generative AI to build alleged clean-room reimplementations of popular software in Rust, making them free and open source, on a wider range of platforms than the source projects support (i.e. Photoshop on Linux and Intel Macs) and even in the web browser. They’re still in early alpha and I don’t want to get bogged down on the specifics, so if you’re interested you can read a little bit more over on Ars Technica.
Legally grey? Probably. But if AI ever had an ethical use case, it’s this. For far too long, companies like Adobe and Microsoft have bullied users towards expensive, difficult-to-leave subscriptions, meaning you’re renting your software rather than owning it outright. I’ve always been a strong proponent of free, open source software, but I really don’t have a problem with people selling their proprietary software either, provided buying a copy means I can *keep using it* for as long as I choose.
AI-assisted reverse engineering could well hurt smaller companies, solo developers, and indie gamedevs and I don’t want to brush that possibility aside, but nevertheless, the democratisation of software development is something I welcome, along with the pained shrieks of C-suite executives who have spent far too long earning far too much, for doing far too little. Besides not listening to their customers, that’s for sure.
Interested? Check out ArtCraft over on GitHub, before big tech attempts to censor it!
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