Adobe Acrobat Now Lets You Edit Files Using Prompts, Generate Podcast Summaries (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0180634120
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/21/198252/adobe-acrobat-now-lets-you-edit-files-using-prompts-generate-podcast-summaries
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/adobe-acrobat-now-lets-you-edit-files-using-prompts-generate-podcast-summaries/
The prompt-based editing supports 12 distinct actions: removing pages, text, comments, and images; finding and replacing words and phrases; and adding e-signatures and passwords. The presentation feature builds on Adobe Spaces, a collaborative file and notes collection the company launched last year. Users can point Acrobat's AI assistant at files in a Space and have it generate an editable pitch deck, then style it using Adobe Express themes and stock imagery.
Shared files in Spaces now include AI-generated summaries that cite specific locations in the source document. Users can also choose from preset AI assistant personas -- "analyst," "entertainer," or "instructor" -- or create custom assistants using their own prompts.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/adobe-acrobat-now-lets-you-edit-files-using-prompts-generate-podcast-summaries/
a 40-page recipe for sun-baked mud (Score:2)
None of this is what PDF is for. PDF is for when you want a printer but don't have one.
They're really out of ideas, aren't they? (Score:2)
Who asked for this? How does it make the product better?
Re: (Score:2)
And if they want to boost sales, why don't they move some features of Acrobat to Adobe Reader, such as being able to merge 2 PDFs and move around pages? They don't have to give users editing capabilities, which would belong in Acrobat, but they could make Adobe Reader more useful. Oh, and have a filter option of converting a pdf to graphic formats like .png, .jpg/jpeg, .bmp.....
Re: (Score:2)
For people who have limited use of their hands this will make it much easier (assuming it works correctly) to do their work. I knew a guy who was wheel-chair bound because of an accident. He had a glove over his one hand with a pencil pushed through a hole to type on the keyboard. Being able to speak what you want to do would have helped him tremendously.
People who also have eyesight issues. Even though there is screen reading software such as JAWS, this will allow people to tell Adobe what they want ra
The Epitome of Bloat by Greed. (Score:2)
> Who asked for this? How does it make the product better?
The Adobe Reader v5.0.5 offline installer, was approximately 8 megabytes in size. Eight. It was used to read PDFs.
The latest version of Adobe Reader offline installer, is six-hundred and fifty-fucking-gigs.
It's still used to read PDFs, but you don't manufacture stock profits with Same Shit, Different Decade.
Three..beers for "Innovation".
Re: (Score:2)
> The latest version of Adobe Reader offline installer, is six-hundred and fifty-fucking- megabytes.
Not that my correction matters much in the grand bloat of things.
Who is going to listen to all those podcasts? (Score:3)
I won't repeat the excellent "who asked for this?" comments, but one corollary that is worth discussing is the supply and demand aspects of "summarize this into a blog post or podcast".
If Adobe (and Microsoft and everyone else AFAICT) are making it easy to make X document into a podcast, then the natural result is that there will be a ton more podcast video/audios posted online. Which means that getting someone to actually care about your podcast will get even harder.
We're already seeing AI slop take over the YouTubes and Facebooks. While this isn't quite the same as Shrimp Jesus, it's still low-effort stuff that adds to the noise and makes the signal harder to find.
I imagine Microsoft and Adobe would shrug and say "not my problem", but it sure seems to me like it makes features like this a lot less useful.
Who cares? (Score:2)
Adobe just DIAF. You're creating tools that enable not very competent people to create not very competent output.
Powered by Adobe. (Score:2)
> Users can also choose from preset AI assistant personas -- "analyst," "entertainer," or "instructor" -- or create custom assistants using their own prompts.
By 'custom assistants', I'm assuming you mean when the hackers inevitably find the unsecured cloud instance hosting the AI virtual classroom "educator" persona and replace it with one more inspired by Andrew "Dice" Clay, just in time for elementary nursery rhyme story hour.
And the accidental "entertainer" button click on RIF day in HR? I'm sure us meatsacks will somehow find it endearing to hear an AI pink slip delivery over the auto-com that sounds like we just won on the Price is Right.
"John Smith, Com
We want to create a digital garbage dump. (Score:2)
We will use AI to create massive piles of digital garbage, that will eventually flood the entire online realm with digital garbage that no one actually cares about, maintains, or wants to see or hear. Maybe, when we finally clutter it up with so much AI generated shit, and more AI generated shit created by AIs trained on the garbage of the previous generation of AIs, we'll finally create a new network for humans to use for a few years before it too becomes a digital dumping ground.
Our obsession with pollut
But then⦠(Score:2)
People keep paying this company, so they must be doing something right.
So it's still just for idiots? (Score:2)
The editing features mentioned are all easily accomplished by just using the existing menus and a couple clicks of your mouse. Who needs Ai to do a find/replace or to delete an image in a document?
Why won't the AI follow my directives (Score:2)
And delete itself. I don't want it. I tell it to delete itself and it just won't listen. Somebody should fix the AI so it will delete itself when ordered to. I didn't invite it onto my computer.