With artificial intelligence taking center stage, many photography platforms have gradually begun to embrace AI in ways one can’t even imagine. Adobe and Shutterstock both offer AI-based features for photographers, ranging from changing the sky to removing backgrounds from a commercial photograph. VSCO, which has long positioned itself as minimal, has not been far behind in adopting the same measures. On January 15, as part of the AI Labs update, VSCO introduced prompt-based editing, which is now stirring the photography community.
According to a post on Reddit’s r/VSCO, the company has unveiled prompt-based editing, which allows one to edit photos using language instead of sliders or masks. The new update is supposed to help speed up the workflow, but from the way people have reacted on Reddit, it seems that’s far from it.
To give an example of how it works, another Reddit post shows how to remove “power lines” from a photo without affecting the image itself. However, the idea of removing clutter thereby defeats the purpose of documenting.
One of the consistent remarks was that this is not what people were using VSCO for. Several users pointed out that the editing app was different because it never pushed photographers to adopt AI, the way Adobe did. At the same time, many agree that VSCO will alienate its users by adopting AI like this. While VSCO is trying “to ease” the workflow, the other challenge is that the platform itself is a bit “wonky” when it comes to uploading images. Thereby, irritating people for not fixing what needs fixing, while working on updates that are not of much use. For instance, one user noted, “The Android version has pretty much been abandoned,” a criticism that has been consistent of VSCO favouring iOS over Android.
Some users said they canceled their paid subscriptions because they were paying for features they couldn’t access. At the same time, some users say that the company’s business model is aggressively pushing towards monetisation, especially with the whole AI Lab. For the uninitiated, the AI Lab was introduced last year, which allowed photographers to “remove objects that disturb the frame.” While it was aimed at wedding and event photographers, this seemed to be a move to benefit content creators.
Today, the AI bubble is growing, and it appears it will continue to grow before bursting in the next 2-3 years. VSCO’s identity was all about being the opposite of Photoshop for photographers. But today, the automation showcases that the company is shifting towards the very thing they were against. While some creators may welcome this change, many are quite opposed to it.
CEO Eric Wittman once said, “The right AI tools should amplify and accelerate your vision, not replace it,” but the current situation is far from that. In fact, speaking about AI, Wittman said in our interview, “None of the things that we’re doing are designed to replace people. That’s not our intent.” We are unsure what VSCO is going through right now. But it is pretty clear they are stubbing their users’ toes by introducing changes no one asked for.