--- title: "AI products can be cloned in a week. Here’s what can’t be copied." description: "In early October 2026 one developer published an open-source Photoshop rebuild, built in about nine days with an AI model. Copying a product's surface is now cheap. The parts a copy cannot take are the ones to build around." image: "https://arc.controlsquare.com/posts/if-anyone-can-clone-your-ai-product/hero-v4.webp" url: "https://controlsquare.com/transmissions/strategy/if-anyone-can-clone-your-ai-product/" --- # AI products can be cloned in a week. Here’s what can’t be copied. In early October 2026, a developer published an open-source rebuild of Photoshop on GitHub. He says he built it in about nine days with an AI coding model. Other rebuilds of Adobe and Microsoft products followed. The rebuilds are early. The developer’s claim of a near-perfect copy is a promise, not a result. But the question under the story applies to any AI product: if someone can copy what you built in a few weeks, what stops them? ## A product that can be copied in a week has to win on something else ### What a copy takes, and what it can’t The PhotoCraft project says it copies menus, shortcuts and behaviour, built from public specifications. Its own README says it isn’t yet a tool for daily professional work. Even so, a rough copy of a familiar interface gets people to try it. A copy takes the interface and the features. A hands-on review by [How-To Geek](https://www.howtogeek.com/a-developer-used-ai-to-build-7-free-adobe-alternatives-and-subscription-software-has-a-new-problem/) found the same pattern. The clone looked remarkably like Photoshop, with the menus and layers in place, but users reported filters that didn’t produce the expected results. It doesn’t take your customers, your support, the files people already keep in your format, or the reason someone pays you instead of using the free version. The project’s own estimate is that it covers about 45% of what a professional needs, according to a report from Declic in mid-October. That gap is real, and it is also the point. The hard part of a product was never the screens. Imagine two bookkeeping tools with identical dashboards. One has a support team that answered your question last March. The other has never answered anyone. A buyer who has been burned once will pay for the first one, even if the second is free. ![Seven app windows stand in one straight row on a dark metal desk, six dimmed and disabled-looking, with the centre window glowing gold, against a dark background of cyan circuit lines and a magenta-teal horizon](https://arc.controlsquare.com/posts/if-anyone-can-clone-your-ai-product/body-v4.webp) _**FIG 1** Six of these windows are switched off. The centre one is the one someone is actually using._ ## The old model: build it well and they will come ### That advice held when building was slow For years, shipping something that worked put you ahead of most of what existed. Building was the hard part, and the product did the marketing. Building is now cheap. The advice hasn’t changed, but the world it described has. A working product no longer earns attention on its own. ## The new model: what a copy can’t reproduce ### Distribution: reaching people who already have the problem A copy can’t reach your buyers. Only you have the list, the audience and the relationships built over months. If you don’t have people who are already looking for the problem, a better copy won’t find them either. ### Trust: the reason to pay you instead of the free copy A free copy has no track record. Buyers pay for proof that the product works for someone like them, and for a team that answers when something breaks. Case studies, named customers and direct support are slow to copy. ### Positioning: the sentence that tells a buyer why this one A clone can match your features but not your sentence. The question is whether a buyer can say, in one line, why your product fits their problem and why it’s worth paying for. If they can’t, the copy and the original look the same to them. ## What to do this month ### Check which of the three you have Ask three questions. Who has this problem and knows you exist? What do people who use it say they’d miss if it disappeared? Can a stranger explain why your product, in one sentence? The earlier post on [why your AI product has no users](https://controlsquare.com/transmissions/strategy/why-your-ai-product-has-no-users/) sets out how to test each one. ## The projects in this story ### Where each one stands, in its own words - **PhotoCraft** (replaces Photoshop): Layers, masks, type and real PSD files. Status: Early alpha. The project says it is not yet a replacement for daily professional work. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/photocraft) - **VectorCraft** (replaces Illustrator): Vector illustration. Status: Early alpha, according to the developer. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/vectorcraft) - **FilmCraft** (replaces Premiere Pro): Video editing, colour and sound. Status: Early alpha, according to the developer. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/filmcraft) - **LightCraft** (replaces Lightroom): Photo library and raw development. Status: Early alpha, according to the developer. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/lightcraft) - **PdfCraft** (replaces Acrobat): Reading, organising and protecting PDFs. Status: Early alpha, according to the developer. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/pdfcraft) - **EffectCraft** (replaces After Effects): Motion graphics and visual effects. Status: Early alpha, according to the developer. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/effectcraft) - **DesignCraft** (replaces InDesign): Page layout and publishing. Status: Early alpha, according to the developer. [View project](https://github.com/storytold/designcraft) - **WordCraft** (replaces Word): Word processing. The developer estimates about 62% of real-world parity. Status: Early stage. Estimate from the developer. [View project](https://getartcraft.com/apps) - **GridCraft** (replaces Excel): Spreadsheets. Status: Pre-alpha, per a third-party audit of the repositories. [View project](https://getartcraft.com/apps) - **DeckCraft** (replaces PowerPoint): Presentations. The developer estimates about 55% readiness. Status: Early stage. Estimate from the developer. [View project](https://getartcraft.com/apps) ### Trademark note Adobe, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, Acrobat, After Effects, InDesign, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint are trademarks of their owners. These projects are independent. Their developers say they are not affiliated with those companies. We show no logos from these projects, and the status lines come from the projects’ own descriptions. ## The next question ### Ask it before someone else does If your product could be copied this month, the copy would still have to find its customers and earn their trust. That is the part we work on. If you want to know where your own product stands, [start a conversation with us](https://controlsquare.com/contact). ### Related posts: [![A glowing app wireframe standing alone on a lit plinth in the centre of an empty vaulted hall with unoccupied tiered benches](https://arc.controlsquare.com/posts/why-your-ai-product-has-no-users/hero-v2.webp)Your AI product has no users. The problem is not the product.](https://controlsquare.com/transmissions/strategy/why-your-ai-product-has-no-users/) [![A dim 1980s home office at dusk with one CRT monitor glowing amber on the desk, cassette decks on the shelves, and a window showing a magenta sunset over a neon grid](https://arc.controlsquare.com/posts/free-signups-but-no-paying-customers/hero-v1.webp)Free AI signups but no paying customers? Test distribution first](https://controlsquare.com/transmissions/strategy/free-ai-signups-but-no-paying-customers/) [![5 AI Money-Making Platforms You Should Use in 2025](https://arc.controlsquare.com/holodeck/5-25/Control%20Square%20-%205-ai-money-making-platforms-you-should-use-in-2025%20-%20Part%201.jpg)5 AI Money-Making Platforms You Should Use in 2025](https://controlsquare.com/transmissions/strategy/5-ai-money-making-platforms-you-should-use-in-2025/)