Hello, dear readers!

This is our weekly brief on remarkable AI topics, so you yourself can teach your kids about AI.

Today's focus — the rise and likely fall of ArtCraft, a vibecoded "Photoshop-killer". The project made headlines a couple of weeks ago with the developer promising users a free-forever alternative to key Adobe Creative Suite apps. After considerable applause on social media, ArtCraft was tested by industry professionals — and their reviews are less than stellar. Should software giants worry about AI-generated simulacrums?

Also in this week's edition:

AI Photoshop Was a Dud?

"Software is over," declared developer Brandon Thomas when he unveiled ArtCraft, a collection of free, open-source Adobe alternatives. Built using Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and Rust, the apps looked like Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, Illustrator, and three other Adobe products. They were tiny, free, and produced at remarkable speed. Thomas even claimed to have "one-shotted Photoshop" and promised full feature parity within a month. With Adobe subscriptions costing a pretty penny, the internet had good reason to cheer.

Then people actually tried using the software. In a hands-on review for Creative Bloq, Joe Foley found that the Photoshop clone struggled with precise selections and content-aware editing. The Lightroom replacement produced ugly sharpening artifacts and mistook a cat for a radial mask. The Premiere clone couldn't handle the reviewer's 10-bit footage and struggled with 4K video. In short, ArtCraft looked like Adobe software, but wasn't nearly as good at doing Adobe things.

To be fair, the apps are labeled early alpha, and it's impressive that AI helped build working versions so quickly. But professionals need software that works today. Entire businesses and a lot of money depend on Adobe's tools doing their jobs reliably. A promising prototype is one thing; trusting it with a paying client's project is another.

Adobe's stock barely reacted to the news. After all, free alternatives to Photoshop have existed for decades, yet Adobe still thrives. Those hated subscription fees pay actual engineers to keep its software working. Remember OpenOffice? It's been around forever, but nearly everyone you know still uses Microsoft or Google office apps. Turns out, free isn't much of a selling point when the competition actually works.

Honey, I Took the Kids to a Data Center

Meet Honey, a curious little honey badger who visits a data center to learn about servers. In the children's book What Is a Data Center?, recommended by industry nonprofit 7x24 Exchange International, Honey learns how data centers keep the internet running. This includes letting her mother shop online while her father sleeps, none the wiser. Finally, a children's book that teaches both digital infrastructure and marital deception.

As WIRED reports, Honey is part of a broader PR campaign. The industry has its own International Data Center Day, with coloring pages, puzzles, and activities where kids draw their favorite "data superhero." Since 2025, at least 11 businesses and industry groups have hosted student field trips to data centers. In Virginia, an industry group even handed out flag-making kits and promotional materials to 3,100 first graders.

The timing is no coincidence. AI is fueling a data center boom, and local communities worry about electricity use, environmental damage, and rising infrastructure costs. Critics compare the campaign to PR efforts by tobacco and fossil fuel companies. Of course, teaching kids how the internet works is great. But perhaps the curriculum should also include a chapter on electricity bills.

Character.AI's Unhappily Ever After

Remember Character.AI, where millions chatted with fictional characters, celebrities, and imaginary friends? One of the early stars of the AI boom has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with estimated debts of $50 million to $100 million. High costs, regulatory scrutiny, and lawsuits alleging harm to young users have taken their toll. Turns out, running an army of AI companions isn't cheap or legally straightforward.

Enter Disney, which has bid $20 million for some of Character.AI's assets and offered jobs to at least 60 employees. Former CEO Karandeep Anand has already become Disney's CTO. The irony? Disney previously complained about Character.AI's unauthorized bots impersonating its characters. Now it wants the technology and people behind them. Perhaps an officially licensed Elsa chatbot is coming after all.

But the deal isn't final. Disney's bid faces a court-supervised sale process, and Character.AI could shut down if no buyer steps in to keep it running. Millions of users could lose their virtual companions. Disney, meanwhile, may walk away with the tech and talent without having to run the platform itself. Not quite a fairy-tale ending.

Thanks for reading AIport. Until next Monday — by then, AI will almost certainly have replaced another entire industry in a demo.