As the fiery debate surrounding AI and copyright infringement continues to boil, the software world has run into its own controversy head first.
Earlier this month, crafty software engineers used Anthropic’s Claude AI model to reverse-engineer Adobe’s expensive and widely-loathed Creative Cloud suite of apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere. The resulting “ArtCraft” suite was a shot across the bow, highlighting how quickly industry-leading software can now be copied and redistributed for free.
“We were shocked by how well they actually worked internally, so decided to open source them,” ArtCraft co-founder Michael Caffrey told Futurism. “Adobe has been notoriously scummy in the past, and when using it we were shocked that this wasn’t an alternative, it was better.”
Now, ArtCraft developer Brandon Thomas has thrown down the gauntlet once more by announcing open-source clones of Microsoft’s widely used Office suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
The resulting apps — GridCraft, DeckCraft, and WordCraft, respectively — are already available to download for free on ArtCraft’s website. The startup will also happily sell you optional AI image and video generating credits, powered by Google’s Nano Banana Pro.
And judging by the appended screenshots, they’re close to one-to-one carbon copies of the original apps, which cost anywhere from $19.99 to $199.99 a year when purchased from Microsoft directly.
Neither Adobe nor Microsoft have done much to appease to their user base. Prices have skyrocketed over the years, while subscriptions have become increasingly limiting, requiring sign-ins, license activations, and active internet connections. Both companies have also been criticized for overcharging for features that most users never asked for (we’re looking at you, generative AI.)
As Tom’s Hardware points out, ArtCraft’s latest tools also have an inherent advantage over Google’s Sheets, Docs, and Slides apps, which are available for free. Since they’re a standalone app, they work without an internet connection and aren’t at the whims of a tech giant looking to start charging for a subscription out of the blue.
How long ArtCraft will be able to keep up its momentum — it’s presumably only a matter of time until their inboxes are flooded with cease and desist letters, if they haven’t already — it’s a satisfying win for those who’ve begrudgingly paid companies like Microsoft and Adobe extortionate amounts of money year after year.
To the people behind the project, it’s also a win for the open source community after years of creatives being stuck with paying considerable monthly fees.
“The tech industry has relied on the open source community for decades to keep their companies running,” Caffrey told Futurism. “Now models are being trained on open source code. So it’s kinda cosmic karma that open source bites back.”
More on ArtCraft: Adobe in Trouble After Someone Reverse Engineered Adobe Creative Suite and Released It as Open Source