🇿🇦 English, 30 October 2026, AI-powered clones
AI Tools Produce Free Clones of Office, Photoshop, and Other Software
AI-powered reverse engineering tools are creating free versions of popular software, raising questions about the future of for-profit software.
One software engineer used AI tools to produce free versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe programs such as Photoshop. This development poses questions about how for-profit software will work in the future. The use of AI-powered reverse engineering tools is making it possible to create free clones of popular software.
The early days of the internet saw a time when software was free or open-source, but the Digital Millennium Copyright Act made it illegal to attempt to break the locks that prevent tinkering. This led to the dominance of for-profit software.
The new era of AI-powered clones of for-profit software could be the beginning of a time when everyone can have their most longed-for function in Excel, but it also raises concerns about file reusability and the importance of data.