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This is brilliant news, I can't wait for a future without OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and the like.
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I feel real dumb asking this but how will AI help here? I'm sick, so if this is a stupid question, let's say it's because of that.
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> how will AI help here?

I've been using Claude in what I call iKaren mode. Basically, all the little complaints where I know I'm in the right against a large corporate other but don't want to get emotionally invested into a petty dispute go to it.

I recently had a room in Milan where they were rude at the rooftop–I was ignored after being seated for thirty minutes–and then refused to enable A/C (which they could do remotely) until I called twice, finally yielding at 1AM. I had a terrible night's rest and, resultantly, difficult day of travel the next day. It was a single night at an expensive hotel–I'd ordinarily ignore it.

This time, I passed my booking details and a short blurb to Claude. Between the flight and ferry to my next destination, it negotiated first, a night's free stay (which I rejected) and then a 25% reïmbursement.

(Granted, OP might be imagining that one can replicate everything one does with Adobe's software with an image-generating AI. Which one might be able to. But it's not going to be cost competitive with anything Adobe offers for at least half a decade given current power- and chip-buildout schedules.)

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In addition to disrupting big software that’s now easy to clone, AI makes it easy to be very persistent as a dissatisfied customer.

I never used to bother with asking for discounts and refunds because of the hassle. Now when Instacart delivers crappy produce or the heat press controller tracks to a different temp than a thermometer shows, I just have Claude deal with opening, tracking, responding to support.

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AI makes it easy to replicate existing software. One can ask a LLM to replicate Photoshop functionalities and, to some extent, it will.
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"to some extent" is the keyword here. There is a lot of fine tuning in Photoshop that's very hard to replicate.
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Anyone successfully done that recently?
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These things get forgotten in weeks if not days. Software maintained by professionals with domain expertise who talk to end users is a different thing from vibecoded slop. It may work for some people, but that is far from "replacement".

I don't believe Photoshop/Lightroom will be replaced until I see actually exodus from these products.

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Another way it would help is making it easier for users to analyse the T&Cs they are signing up for.

Most people aren't well versed in reading T&Cs and whilst LLMs won't do a perfect job, they would likely do a decent job at assessing and highlighting potentially unfriendly clauses such as this.

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There are a couple of vibe coded "alternatives" to Adobe Suite.
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I think the idea is you'll just ask Claude to make a photoshop and you won't need adobe
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> love the downvotes

You're being downvoted, perhaps, for throwing out a generic (albeit literal) deus ex machina. I flagged for the "comment[ing] about the voting on comments" [1]. Happy to undo if fixed.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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> Companies that are user-hostile have no place in the future.

All I can think of reading this is that bit from Futurama when Bender goes: AHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHA. Oh wait you're serious. Let me laugh even harder.

Yeah we've had near four decades of massive expansion of software, free and not, and AI is definitely what's going to finally make it so companies can't be user hostile. That was what we were missing. 100%.

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Man, people on HN have no dreams. It's so sad and gloomy.

We can do so much good by just looking up instead of down. We can make the world better.

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Dreams are one thing. People here are tired of fantasies and wishful thinking. Looking at the problem here - Adobe treating customers like crap and exploiting them - most of us realize that the solution is simply regulation. Leveraging the power of society and government to force the company to behave properly.

Gesturing at LLMs and going “this and the free market will fix it” is laughably naive, especially in 2026. That is why people are reacting harshly. This is a problem that was created by the free market, it’s not magically going to be fixed by some new product.

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Better reply than I would've written.

FWIW GP, I'm not bitter. I just know what won't fix this and cosigning this comment, it's more free sodding markets and more new products.

You want companies to act user-first? Cool. Make it fuckin illegal for em to NOT do that, and watch it happen. I see no percentage in it for anyone, apart from the worst people in our industry, permitting companies to have the option to act unethically. I don't think that adds value for anyone.

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