Software maker duped Adobe sets its sights on Microsoft Office

Will vibecoded AI applications soon replace old paid software like Photoshop and Microsoft Word? Or will the deluge of applications created by AI models show that these legacy applications are superior products?

Earlier this month, Reddit user u/ai_art_is_art, who Tom’s material revealed to be a software engineer named Brandon Thomas, shared a project he’s working on: a rebuild of the entire Adobe Creative Suite, under the ArtCraft banner. There is, however, one key difference between ArtCraft and Adobe software: you have to pay to access Adobe.

From Adobe Premiere to Photoshop to After Effects, Thomas has recreated them all with the help of AI in Rust, a programming language. Named PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, DesignCraft, EffectCraft, PdfCraft, VectorCraft and LightCraft, each duplicates one of the signature applications found in Adobe’s software suite for creatives.

And Thomas freed them all in the form of free and open source tools.

Now, the developer is tackling the Microsoft Office suite.

Thomas has just released WordCraft, DeckCraft, and GridCraft (along with additional creative duplicates like SoundCraft, DesignCraft, and CADCraft), which are his version of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

These apps have sparked some controversy on Reddit and elsewhere on the internet over AI-generated code. Although Thomas clarified that he is a software developer who knows how to code, concerns about cybersecurity and the ethics of AI-generated code have resulted in posts about his apps being removed from some subreddits.

Additionally, there are concerns that Thomas is now overseeing a suite of applications himself, although the community has also been invited to contribute to the open source project.

Thomas is clearly pro-AI, which has also been a point of contention for some critics. It released these applications under its ArtCraft brand, a suite of for-profit tools for AI-generated art. Also, if you take another look at Thomas’ Reddit username, it’s “AI art is art.”

Supporters of Thomas and his apps, however, see this as an act of protest against companies like Adobe and what they see as unscrupulous subscription tactics, in which Adobe makes it difficult for customers to cancel plans.

It’s unclear whether Thomas’s apps have any staying power at this point, but that hasn’t stopped social media users from speculating that the era of traditional paid software is over. Indeed, we’re seeing a similar trend in the gaming world, where AI-assisted jailbreaks and decompiled games are now readily available.

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