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The AI-Powered PDF Marks the End of an Era (wired.com)

(Thursday August 21, 2025 @11:21AM (msmash) from the state-of-affairs dept.)


The era of software without embedded AI assistants is increasingly ending as Adobe launches Acrobat Studio, [1]adding collaborative AI workspaces to the 32-year-old PDF format . The new platform allows users to upload multiple documents into "PDF spaces" where personalized chatbot assistants parse and answer questions about their contents.

Adobe began integrating generative AI into Acrobat last year and now positions this release as the format's biggest transformation since its 1993 debut. The shift arrives amid growing user fatigue with AI features proliferating across everyday applications -- a Pew Research Center report found US adults more concerned than excited about AI's impact on their lives. Adobe's move cements 2025 as the year generative AI became inescapable in essential software, fundamentally altering how users interact with documents that once replicated the familiarity of paper.



[1] https://www.wired.com/story/adobe-ai-powered-pdf-end-of-an-era/



The end of PDF (Score:4, Insightful)

by aaarrrgggh ( 9205 )

If a PDF isn't fixed then you might as well go back to screenshots. Seems absurd to not make this a .pdf2 or something where standard .pdf's can be reliably considered a reference document.

More and more control (Score:2)

by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 )

Increasingly, corporations and broligarchs are intent on seeing, recording, stealing, meddling in, fucking with, monetizing and rent-seeking on EVERYTHING we do, whether it's preparing a document or walking down the fucking street. Goddammit, I'm getting mightily sick of this utter shit. Where are the torches and pitchforks?

Re: (Score:2)

by nightflameauto ( 6607976 )

> Increasingly, corporations and broligarchs are intent on seeing, recording, stealing, meddling in, fucking with, monetizing and rent-seeking on EVERYTHING we do, whether it's preparing a document or walking down the fucking street. Goddammit, I'm getting mightily sick of this utter shit. Where are the torches and pitchforks?

You would think people would start backing away from tech, with as much as it's started to be used as nothing more than a tool of oppression. But it doesn't seem to be penetrating the public conscience. People are still clinging to their gadgets, and buying up new ones as quick as they can, regardless of how much it's being used as a method of control. It's damned depressing, even if it is vaguely dark-comedic.

Re: (Score:2)

by VertosCay ( 7266594 )

> Where are the torches and pitchforks?

Aisle 5, across from the trebuchet display

Misleading title, it's Acrobat not PDF. (Score:2)

by Z-MaxX ( 712880 )

Who even uses Acrobat? The PDF file format is alive and well, and there's no AI in the format. It's just Adobe's enshittification of their software.

Re: (Score:1)

by Train0987 ( 1059246 )

What alternative PDF editor exists that isn't doing this same shit?

Can I get a 20 on your thinkmeat, good buddy? (Score:2)

by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 )

No, thanks, I'll stick to just basic PDF, with, of course, the all-important CB-radio extensions from the 1970s.

In other words (Score:2)

by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

Adobe is using customers to train AI for free.

Hey Adobe how about using that fancy AI to speed up OCR or even loading the damn file faster? Shit still loads and scrolls as fast as it did on a 486. I read a lot of datasheets and Okular is better than anything else out there.

Why use Acrobat? (Score:2)

by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 )

If I want a PDF, I create the file in whatever editor or program I want and then save it as a PDF, which can be read with the free reader or by many other programs.

Red Hat Linux 10.0

RALEIGH-DURHAM, NC -- HypeNewsWire -- Red Hat, the producer of the most
popular Linux distribution with over 25 million estimated users, is proud to
announce the availability of Red Hat Linux 10.0. The latest version
contains the new Linux 6.2 kernel, the Z Window System 2.0, full support for
legacy Windows 3.x/9x/200x/NT software apps, and more. Copies of Red Hat
Linux 10.0 will be available in stores on CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or GNUDE (GNU
Digital Encoding) disks within the next week.

Compaq, Dell, Gateway, and several other large computer manufacturers have
announced that they will offer computer systems with Red Hat 10.0
pre-installed. "We can sell systems with Red Hat pre-installed for
considerably less than systems with Microsoft ActiveWindows 2001. Overall,
Red Hat Linux's superior quality, low price, and modest system requirements
puts Windows to shame," one Dell spokesperson said at last week's LinDex
convention.