Adobe Firefly
Adobe Firefly is a generative AI platform for creating images, vectors, video, and audio. Integrated into Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and Illustrator, it uses a credit-based system and is marketed as commercially safe, trained on licensed Adobe Stock content and public domain works.
Score generated by AI agents based on publicly cited evidence and reviewed by the project maintainer. Not independently validated. Last assessed 2026-10-01. Score revised 2026-10-01: 52 → 47.
Score History
Timeline events are AI-curated from public reporting. Score trajectory is derived from documented events.
Adobe launched Firefly in public beta on March 21, 2023, marketing it as commercially safe because it was trained on Adobe Stock, openly licensed and public-domain content. Generation was free, Generative Fill reached the Photoshop beta in May, and enterprise IP indemnification followed in June. The baggage was corporate: Stock contributors objected that their images trained the model without notice or opt-out, Adobe's annual-plan cancellation fee was under FTC investigation, and the $20 billion Figma bid faced antitrust scrutiny.
Firefly's commercial release on September 13, 2023 introduced generative credits, and Creative Cloud prices rose in November citing the new AI features. Adobe abandoned Figma in December 2023 under regulatory pressure, began enforcing credit limits on select plans in January 2024 without in-app notices, and authorized a $25 billion buyback in March 2024. In April 2024 Bloomberg reported that about 5% of Firefly's training data were AI-generated images from rivals, undercutting the clean-data pitch.
A viral backlash over Adobe's re-accepted Terms of Use in early June 2024 forced a written pledge not to train generative AI on customer content, and on June 17 the DOJ, on FTC referral, sued Adobe over its hidden early termination fee and obstructed cancellation. Over the next year Adobe pushed further into paid AI: the monthly Photography plan rose 50%, standalone Firefly plans launched in February 2025 at up to $199.99, and partner models from OpenAI and Google arrived in April 2025. Buybacks exceeded quarterly net income and CEO pay reached $52.4 million (250:1).
On June 17, 2025 Adobe cut monthly credits for new single-app and Photography subscribers from 500 to 25 and began hard-enforcing limits in Photoshop, while Creative Cloud All Apps became the pricier Creative Cloud Pro. A private class action over subscription terms followed in August, Firefly Foundry tied enterprise custom models to Adobe-hosted services from October, and FY2025 buybacks of $11.28 billion exceeded net income. The DOJ case stayed open through the era.
On March 12, 2026 Adobe agreed to settle the DOJ/FTC ROSCA case ($75 million in penalties plus $75 million in services, with fee-disclosure and cancellation requirements) and Narayen announced he would step down as CEO. Since then Adobe has used up its 2024 buyback and authorized another $25 billion, said generative AI was eroding its Stock business faster than planned, bought Topaz Labs, and rotated Firefly between discounts and first-year unlimited offers. Anil Chakravarthy was named CEO effective December 1, 2026, and a private class action over subscription practices partly survived dismissal.
Alternatives
The leading AI image generator for artistic quality, producing richly detailed, cinematic images. No free tier and Discord-only historically, but now has a web interface. Moderate switch — just sign up and start prompting. Starts at $10/month.
All-in-one design platform with built-in AI image generation, templates, and collaboration tools. Generous free tier and much simpler than Adobe's ecosystem. Easy switch for marketing and social media use cases. AI features use a credit system but less restrictive than Adobe's.
Makers of Stable Diffusion, the leading open-source AI image model that can run locally for unlimited free generations with full control. Best for users comfortable with technical setup. No subscription fees if self-hosted, though cloud-hosted options exist. Hard switch for non-technical users but unmatched for privacy and freedom.
Dimensional Breakdown
Summaries below were written by AI agents based on the cited evidence. They are editorial interpretations, not independent research findings.
Dimension History
Timeline (50 events)
Adobe's 12-Month Contract Dark Pattern Documented
Gigazine relayed a Darkpatterns.org thread documenting how Adobe's sign-up flow defaulted free-trial users into an annual plan billed monthly, hid the total annual cost, and buried a cancellation fee of 50% of the remaining annual payments in small print that was hard to find. The FTC opened a formal investigation into Adobe's subscription disclosure and cancellation practices a few months later, in June 2022.
Adobe Announces $20 Billion Figma Acquisition
Adobe announced a definitive agreement to acquire Figma, its most significant competitor in collaborative design tools, for approximately $20 billion in cash and stock. Antitrust experts immediately flagged concerns, with former DOJ and FTC officials predicting the deal would attract regulatory scrutiny for potentially reducing competition and innovation in the design software market.
Adobe Conducts 100-Person Quiet Layoff
Adobe laid off about 100 people from its sales team in December 2022 as a cost-cutting measure, offering affected staff opportunities to find other roles internally. In March 2023 chief people officer Gloria Chen said there would be no mass layoffs at Adobe in 2023 and that hiring for critical roles would continue.
Adobe Firefly Launches in Public Beta
Adobe introduced Firefly, a family of generative AI models, in public beta. The first model focused on image generation and text effects, trained on Adobe Stock, openly licensed content, and public domain works. Adobe positioned Firefly as 'commercially safe' for enterprise use, differentiating it from competitors like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.
Adobe CFO Says No Company-Wide Layoffs After 100 Sales Cuts
In a Fortune interview, CFO Dan Durn said Adobe would not do company-wide layoffs, attributing this to not having over-hired during the pandemic. The article noted Adobe had eliminated about 100 sales jobs in December 2022 to reduce expenses, as Bloomberg reported, while peers such as Meta cut tens of thousands.
Adobe's Subscription Dark Patterns Persist During Firefly Beta
While Firefly's free beta drew new users, Adobe kept steering subscribers into its 'annual paid monthly' plan with an early termination fee of 50% of remaining payments disclosed only in small print or behind hover icons. The government's later complaint alleged Adobe persisted in these practices despite the Civil Investigative Demand the FTC issued in June 2022.
Generative Fill Launches in Photoshop Beta
Adobe integrated Firefly-powered Generative Fill into the Photoshop beta, letting users add, extend, or remove content from images with text prompts. Adobe said Firefly itself, six weeks after launch, had become one of the most successful beta launches in the company's history, with beta users generating over 100 million assets.
Adobe Launches Firefly for Enterprise as Stock Contributors Object
At Adobe Summit EMEA, Adobe launched Firefly for Enterprise, a company-wide offering marketed as commercially safe, with plans to let businesses custom-train Firefly on their own branded assets. The model was trained on Adobe Stock content, and Stock contributors began objecting that their work was used to train a system that would compete with them, without an option to opt out.
Adobe Stock Contributors Protest Firefly Training
VentureBeat reported discontent among Adobe Stock contributors who said Adobe trained Firefly on their images without express notification or consent, and that the ethical course would have been to notify them and offer an opt-out from the start. Contributors argued Adobe had used their work to build a system that would compete with and devalue their own output. Adobe's contributor FAQ states it does not allow an opt-out preference for Adobe Stock content.
Adobe Offers IP Indemnification for Firefly Users
Adobe announced an IP indemnification clause for enterprise customers, promising to cover legal costs arising from copyright claims related to Firefly-generated content. The indemnification applied to select Firefly outputs through Creative Cloud enterprise plans and Adobe Express site licenses. Adobe positioned this as a competitive differentiator against non-indemnified alternatives.
Firefly Commercial Release with Credit System
Adobe released Firefly commercially with native integration across Creative Cloud, Express, and Experience Cloud. The release introduced the generative credit system for the first time, with Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers receiving 1,000 monthly credits. Firefly users had generated over 2 billion images during the beta period. Adobe also launched standalone Firefly subscription pricing.
Creative Cloud Prices Increase 5-10%
Adobe raised prices across Creative Cloud plans in North America and Europe, with the All Apps annual billed monthly plan increasing $5 to $59.99/month. Single App plans rose $2/month. Adobe justified the increases by citing new creative capabilities including Firefly AI features and generative credits now bundled with subscriptions. The price hikes applied to users who had no choice but to accept them due to format lock-in and ETF penalties.
Bloomberg Reports FTC Investigating Adobe Cancellation Practices
Bloomberg reported that the FTC was investigating Adobe's subscription cancellation practices, based on Adobe's own SEC filing. Adobe disclosed it had been cooperating since June 2022 with an FTC Civil Investigative Demand under the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, that FTC staff asserted in November 2023 that they could enter consent negotiations, and that resolving the matter 'could involve significant monetary costs or penalties.'
Adobe Abandons $20B Figma Acquisition
Adobe and Figma mutually terminated their $20 billion merger agreement after DOJ, EU, and UK CMA antitrust investigations found no clear path to regulatory approval. Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion breakup fee. The DOJ had been preparing a lawsuit arguing the acquisition would eliminate Adobe's most significant competitor in collaborative design tools, reducing innovation and choice.
Adobe Starts Enforcing Generative Credit Limits Without In-App Notice
From January 17, 2024 Adobe began enforcing generative credit limits on select plans, including Firefly, and tracking use on all plans. PetaPixel reported that Adobe had not pushed notifications to Photoshop users that their work consumed credits, and that Adobe said generative AI in Photoshop and Lightroom would never be limited, with use only possibly slower once credits ran out.
Adobe Approves $25 Billion Stock Buyback Program
Adobe's board authorized a new $25 billion stock repurchase program running through March 14, 2028, which CFO Dan Durn said underscored Adobe's ability to return significant capital to shareholders. The program dwarfed previous buybacks and signaled aggressive shareholder value extraction.
Bloomberg: Adobe Staff Disputed Training Firefly on AI Images
Multiple Adobe employees told Bloomberg there had been internal disagreement since Firefly's early days over the ethics and optics of including AI-generated images from rival tools in its training data. Some suggested weaning the model off generated images over time, but one person said there were no current plans to do so.
Bloomberg Reveals Firefly Trained on Competitor AI Images
Bloomberg reported that approximately 5% of Firefly's training data consisted of AI-generated images from competitors including Midjourney and DALL-E, contradicting Adobe's marketing claims of purely ethical, licensed training data. The images had been uploaded to Adobe Stock by contributors and entered the training pipeline. Adobe Stock contained 57 million AI-labeled images, representing 14% of the database.
Adobe Terms of Service Controversy Erupts
Adobe's updated Terms of Use, which had been quietly changed in February 2024, went viral when users noticed language granting Adobe access to content through 'automated and manual methods.' A single tweet highlighting the clause garnered over 5 million views and 50,000 likes. Creatives feared their NDA-protected work would be used to train Firefly. Adobe clarified and revised the terms on June 24, explicitly stating it would not use user content for AI training.
Adobe Pledges in Its Terms Not to Train AI on Customer Content
Responding to the Terms of Use backlash, Adobe said it had never trained generative AI on customer content and would add that commitment to its Terms of Use as a legal obligation, with updated terms due by June 18, 2024. It said Firefly is trained only on licensed content such as Adobe Stock and public-domain works, and that users can opt out of its desktop product improvement program.
FTC and DOJ Sue Adobe Over Dark Patterns
The DOJ filed a complaint on referral from the FTC alleging Adobe pre-selected and pushed consumers toward its 'annual paid monthly' plan while burying its early termination fee (50% of remaining payments) in small print or behind hover icons, and made cancellation difficult through multi-page online flows, dropped calls and chats, and multiple transfers. The complaint named Adobe and two executives, Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, and sought civil penalties and a permanent injunction.
Adobe Stock AI-Generated Content Reaches 62% of Illustrations
An Adobe Community Forum user reported that AI-generated images made up 62% of Adobe Stock's Illustration category (52.7 million of 84.7 million images as of June 22, 2024) and questioned how Firefly could be commercially safe when trained on Stock content that included synthetic images from unknown generators. A later post in the thread put the share at 78% by January 2025.
Adobe Ends Acrobat Perpetual Licenses
Adobe terminated the ability to purchase perpetual licenses for Adobe Acrobat, with support for existing perpetual licenses set to end in June 2025. This forced remaining holdout customers onto subscription plans, eliminating the last major perpetual license option and deepening subscription lock-in across the entire Adobe ecosystem that Firefly was integrated into.
Firefly Video Model Launches at Adobe MAX 2024
Adobe expanded Firefly to video generation at MAX 2024, introducing Text to Video and Image to Video capabilities in limited public beta. The Video Model was positioned as the first 'commercially safe' AI video generator. During the limited beta, generations were free, but video would later consume premium credits at higher rates than image generation.
Photography Plan Price Increase to $14.99/Month
Adobe raised the monthly price of its Photography (20GB) plan from $9.99 to $14.99 for monthly-paid subscribers from January 15, 2025, a 50% increase, while the annual prepaid option stayed at $119.88; Adobe also stopped offering the plan to new customers. Some forum users later complained that the increase plus a credit add-on for Firefly amounted to a 150% jump in their costs.
Adobe Launches Standalone Firefly Subscriptions
Adobe introduced standalone Firefly subscription plans: Standard ($9.99/month, 2,000 credits, about 20 five-second videos) and Pro ($29.99/month, about 70 five-second videos), with a Premium tier for about 500 videos per month whose price had not yet been announced (it later launched at $199.99/month with 50,000 credits). The tiered structure created a monetization layer separate from Creative Cloud, with video generation consuming credits at premium rates (about 100 credits per five-second video).
Adobe Proxy Discloses CEO Narayen's $52.4M FY2024 Pay, 250:1 Ratio
Adobe's 2025 proxy statement reported CEO Shantanu Narayen's fiscal 2024 total compensation at $52.39 million (including $46.3 million in stock awards) against median employee pay of $209,583, a CEO pay ratio of 250 to 1. The proxy also describes a corporate aircraft used primarily by the CEO, with a $400,000 annual allowance for personal use.
Adobe Spends $3.25 Billion on Buybacks in Q1 FY2025
In the quarter ended February 28, 2025, Adobe made payments totaling $3.25 billion to repurchase shares under its $25 billion program, then entered a further $3.5 billion accelerated repurchase in March. The quarter's buyback spending exceeded its $1.81 billion GAAP net income.
Adobe Retreats from Bluesky After 1,600+ Hostile Comments
Adobe's Bluesky debut was met with over 1,600 angry comments from digital creators. Users mocked subscription pricing ('I assume you'll be charging us monthly to read your posts'), criticized AI policies, and expressed years of accumulated frustration. Adobe deleted all posts and went silent on the platform, demonstrating how deeply creator trust had eroded.
Firefly Adds Image Model 4 and Rival Partner Models
At MAX London Adobe released Firefly Image Model 4 and 4 Ultra and the Firefly Video Model, and opened the Firefly app to third-party models starting with OpenAI's image generation, Google's Imagen 3 and Veo 2, and Flux 1.1 Pro, with more partners planned. Content Credentials note whether an output came from a Firefly or a partner model.
Credits Slashed from 500 to 25 for New Subscribers
Adobe reduced monthly generative credits from 500 to 25 for Creative Cloud single-app and Photography (1TB) plans for anyone subscribing after June 17, 2025; earlier subscribers kept 500. At the same time, Creative Cloud All Apps was replaced in North America by 'Creative Cloud Pro,' with the starting price rising from $59.99 to $69.99 per month at renewal (16.7%). The price change was announced in May 2025, about a month ahead.
Class Action Filed Over Hidden Subscription Terms
A class action lawsuit was filed alleging Adobe failed to clearly disclose subscription and cancellation terms. The complaint alleged the only indication of the early termination fee was 'faint, gray text' requiring users to hover over a tiny icon. The suit supplemented the ongoing FTC action with private claims for damages from affected consumers.
Adobe Pays Annual Firefly Bonus to Stock Contributors
Adobe paid a discretionary Firefly Contributor bonus on September 17, 2025 to Stock contributors whose content was considered for Firefly training between June 2024 and June 2025, scaled by licenses. Adobe says existing contributor terms already permit training and that it does not allow an opt-out preference for Adobe Stock content.
Firefly Foundry Locks Enterprises Into Custom AI Models
At Adobe MAX 2025, Adobe launched Firefly Foundry, a fully managed service in which Adobe retrains Firefly models on an enterprise's own IP. Futurum reported dedicated teams of PhD experts and multi-year engagements priced by use case, with Disney and Home Depot among early users. The resulting models are delivered through Adobe's own Firefly Services API and apps, tying brand-specific AI to Adobe's platform.
Adobe Reports $11.3B in FY2025 Share Buybacks
Adobe reported record FY2025 revenue of $23.77 billion and GAAP net income of $7.13 billion, while repurchasing about 30.8 million shares; its 10-K shows $11.28 billion paid for buybacks during the year, more than its entire net income.
Author Files Class Action Over Pirated Books in SlimLM Training
Oregon author Elizabeth Lyon filed a proposed class action alleging Adobe trained its SlimLM small language models on SlimPajama-627B, a dataset derived from RedPajama that includes the Books3 collection of about 191,000 pirated books, including her own. The suit, first reported by Reuters, targets Adobe's document-assistant language models rather than Firefly.
Adobe Employees Report Benefit Changes Heading Into 2026
Going into 2026, employee posts reported benefit changes alongside ongoing layoff worries, including Adobe ending its practice of paying its FSA contribution as a lump sum at the start of the year and instead spreading it from January to October. Adobe's stock-based compensation reached $1.94 billion in fiscal 2025 while it kept up large buybacks.
Author Class Action Targets Adobe's SlimLM Training Data
Author Arthur Kleiner filed a proposed class action in the Northern District of California alleging Adobe willfully infringed hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books by using pirated datasets, including RedPajama and Common Crawl, to train its SlimLM language models. The suit joins Elizabeth Lyon's December 2025 copyright suit and targets Adobe's language models rather than Firefly's image models.
Narayen Announces He Will Step Down as Adobe CEO
Adobe said CEO Shantanu Narayen, in the role since 2007, would step down once a successor was appointed and stay on as board chair. He received $51 million in total compensation for fiscal 2025. Adobe shares were down 23% for the year amid fears that AI would erode its software business.
Adobe Says Customers Are Shifting From Stock to Generative AI
On its fiscal Q1 2026 call Adobe said its Stock business declined more sharply than management had predicted, with creativity president David Wadhwani saying the shift toward generative AI was playing out more quickly than planned. Stock is the marketplace whose contributors' images trained Firefly.
Adobe Settles FTC/DOJ Dark Patterns Case for $150 Million
Adobe agreed to pay $75 million in civil penalties and provide $75 million in free services to resolve the June 2024 DOJ/FTC lawsuit alleging ROSCA violations through hidden early termination fees and obstructed cancellation. The proposed stipulated order requires Adobe to clearly disclose ETFs before enrollment, remind customers before free trials longer than seven days convert to paid subscriptions with an ETF, and provide easy ways to cancel. Adobe filed a stipulation of dismissal the same day.
'Generate Without Limits' Promotion Ends for Pro and Premium
Adobe's limited-time offer of unlimited image and Firefly video generations (up to 2K) for Firefly Pro, Premium and credit-plan subscribers, which let them keep generating after exhausting monthly credits, ran through March 16, 2026. Afterward subscribers reverted to metered credit consumption, repeating Adobe's pattern of temporary abundance followed by restriction.
Firefly AI Assistant and Precision Editing Tools Announced
Adobe unveiled the Firefly AI Assistant, a conversational creative agent that orchestrates multi-step workflows across Creative Cloud apps, alongside new precision image editing features (Precision Flow and AI Markup), Firefly Video Editor upgrades, and Kling 3.0 video models. The releases represented genuine capability expansion, though premium features continued consuming credits at elevated rates.
Adobe Authorizes Another $25 Billion Buyback
Adobe's board granted authority to repurchase up to $25 billion of stock through April 30, 2030, after the March 2024 $25 billion program was fully used during the first nine months of fiscal 2026. Adobe paid $6.82 billion for repurchases in those nine months, and $24.55 billion remained under the new authorization at August 28, 2026.
Firefly Pro Restructured as 50%-Off Promotion Closes
Adobe's Firefly plans now list Pro at $19.99/month with 4,000 credits, down from the $29.99/month, 7,000-credit Pro launched in 2025: a lower entry price delivering roughly 14% less credit value per dollar. A 50%-off first-year promotion on Pro Plus ($24.96/month) and Premium ($99.86/month) closed to new sign-ups on May 20, 2026; those subscribers renew at the regular $49.99 and $199.99 prices, and Adobe followed with a 30%-off first-year offer.
Firefly Offers First-Year Unlimited Generations on Select Models
Adobe began offering individual Firefly Pro, Pro Plus, Premium and credit-plan subscribers a year of unlimited generations on select Firefly and partner models, usable only on the Firefly web and mobile apps, after an earlier unlimited window ended on April 22, 2026. After the first year users return to consuming credits, and Adobe reserves the right to modify, limit or discontinue the offer at any time.
Adobe Backs CREATOR Act Against AI Style Impersonation
Adobe endorsed the bipartisan CREATOR Act, introduced that day, which would protect visual artists against AI-generated impersonation of their signature style, arguing that existing copyright law does not cover style.
Adobe Acquires AI Enhancement Maker Topaz Labs
Adobe agreed on June 25, 2026 to acquire Topaz Labs, maker of Topaz Video, Topaz Photo and Gigapixel, and completed the deal on September 23. Topaz technology is available in Firefly and Photoshop for upscaling and enhancement, while the Topaz brand and standalone apps continue.
Adobe Names Anil Chakravarthy CEO as Creative Chief Departs
Adobe's board appointed Anil Chakravarthy, president of its Customer Experience Orchestration business, as president and CEO effective December 1, 2026, with Narayen becoming executive chair. David Wadhwani, president of the Creativity & Productivity business that runs Firefly, said he would step down effective September 27, 2026.
Court Lets Consumer Class Claims Over Adobe Subscriptions Proceed
A California federal court partly denied Adobe's motion to dismiss the consumer class action over its subscription terms and cancellation process. Some Consumer Legal Remedies Act claims were dismissed for lack of standing to seek injunctive relief, but the broader class claims continue on the basis that a typical consumer could have been misled by the sign-up process.
Evidence (50 citations)
D1: User Value Erosion
D2: Business Customer Exploitation
D3: Shareholder Extraction
D4: Lock-in & Switching Costs
D5: Twiddling & Algorithmic Opacity
D6: Dark Patterns
D7: Advertising & Monetization Pressure
D8: Competitive Conduct
D9: Labor & Governance
D10: Regulatory & Legal Posture
Scoring Log (7 entries)
Checked 90 items + prose. 36 verified, 34 corrected (13 date-only), 14 re-sourced, 6 removed (2 duplicate, 3 junk-only, 1 unsupported). Invented: $543.48 buyback price and '11% of shares' (junk-only kavout/cgaa; 10-Q shows $475.94); FY2025 buybacks $20.3B and 'over 10% retired' (10-K: $11.28B, 30.8M shares); 29% AI-design market share (content farm only); Preston/Nazemian suit against Adobe (only Lyon sued; DIYPhotography calls it the first); 80% 2024 say-on-pay (proxy: ~85%). Also fixed: CEO pay ratio 229 to 250 (FY2024), Bloomberg date Jan to Apr 2024, VentureBeat date, class action 2024 to 2025, Q1 FY25 buybacks $3.4B to $3.25B, 2025 lobbying $1.56M (Q1-Q3) to ~$2.05M, opt-out quote wording, unsupported court approval, WARN-threshold layoff claims.
52->47. D3 6->5 (correction: FY2025 buybacks $11.28B not $20.3B; no large layoffs alongside buybacks, criteria 6-7 unmet), D4 6->5 (recalibration: Firefly outputs portable and rivals plentiful; lock-in is Creative Cloud embedding, ETF and Foundry), D5 3->4 (event: 2026 rolling unlimited offers with shifting scope/end dates; per-model credit pricing), D8 6->4 (correction: junk 29% market-share claim removed; recalibration: Firefly hosts rival models since Apr 2025, no squeeze of third parties; Topaz deal keeps it in 4-5), D9 5->4 (correction: WARN-threshold quiet-layoff claims removed; FY2025 pay ratio 217:1), D10 5->4 (recalibration: ROSCA settled; modest lobbying; CAI, ToS no-training pledge, CREATOR Act support). D1, D2, D6, D7 unchanged. Eras: Ethical AI Promise re-dated 2023-03-01->2023-03-21 (beta launch); Commercialization Begins re-dated 2023-09-01->2023-09-13 (commercial release); Regulatory Collision re-dated 2024-06-01->2024-06-06 (ToS backlash, DOJ suit 06-17); Credit Squeeze Era re-dated 2025-06-01->2025-06-17 (500->25 credit cut) and merged with 'Deepening Extraction' (assessment-dated 2026-02-19, no distinct inflection); 'Settlement and Repricing' (rescore-dated 2026-07-02) re-dated to 2026-03-12 (ROSCA settlement agreement and Narayen exit) and relabeled 'Settlement and Succession'. Since Jul 2025: credit cut for new single-app subscribers, Foundry, $11.28B FY2025 buybacks, ROSCA settled Mar 2026, CEO exit and successor named, new $25B buyback Apr 2026, Stock business eroding as customers shift to gen AI, Topaz Labs acquired, rotating unlimited-generation offers, consumer class action partly survives. Handoff lead 4: no court-entry of the stipulated order found; text says stipulated order and stipulation of dismissal only. Not added: SEIU/Hirschberger derivative suits (SlimLM, not Firefly); 2026 layoff reports (no reliable source). Category 'AI' seems fine.
Periodic rescore: $150M DOJ/FTC ROSCA settlement with court-approved injunction (D6 7→6), Firefly credit-value degradation and promo expirations (D7 4→5), D10 held at 5 (settlement resolution offset by Kleiner v. Adobe SlimLM suit). Net 52→52; trajectory worsening→stable.
Added 1 missing dimension narrative
Fixed alternative name 'Stable Diffusion' to 'Stability AI' to match scored product slug