occupies a unique place in the software's history. It arrived at the perfect inflection point: AI was powerful enough to save you minutes per task, but not so dominant that it removed your creative control. It is the version where selections stopped being a chore, where the app ran natively on Apple Silicon, and where the cloud became a helper, not a jailer.
For photographers and retouchers, this feature alone is a game-changer. It eliminates the tedious hours spent on refining edges with the Lasso or Pen tools. Whether you are selecting a complex subject like a person with flowing hair or a solid object like a coffee mug, the Object Selection Tool in 23.1 utilizes Adobe’s Sensei AI to distinguish edges with uncanny accuracy.
December 2021 was a volatile time for hardware. Apple had just released the M1 Max MacBook Pro, and Intel was pushing its 12th-gen Alder Lake chips. Version 23.1 was the first Photoshop build optimized for both architectures simultaneously.