recently,Stable DiffusionThe core research team of Stable AI announced their collective resignation, which has attracted widespread attention in the technology community. The team leader Robin Rombach, co-first author Andreas Blattmann and another author Dominik Lorenz are all on the resignation list. Although the specific reasons for the resignation have not been made public, according to Forbes, Stable AI may be facing challenges due to financial difficulties.
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The Stable Diffusion project was initially led by Professor Björn Ommer of the University of Munich, and was completed by Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, and Dominik Lorenz, three members of the Machine Vision and Learning Research Group, and researchers from the AI startup Runway.
The project receivedStability AIThe success of Stable Diffusion, especially its free and open source nature, has brought Stability AI great reputation and financial support. The company raised $101 million in its Series A round of financing in 2022, with a valuation of $1 billion.
However, the openness of Stable Diffusion also poses a challenge to Stability AI's business model. According to Bloomberg, the company needs to pay up to $8 million in operating costs per month, but its revenue can hardly cover this expenditure. Internal documents disclosed by Forbes show that the company's expenses far exceed its revenue. Last year, Stability AI was even rumored to be seeking a sale.
Despite the financial pressures, Stability AI also released Stable Diffusion last month.up to dateThe company has announced that it will release the first version of the game, Stable Diffusion 3, which has significantly improved text rendering, multi-theme prompts, and image quality. However, the departure of the core team has undoubtedly cast a shadow on the company's future. At present, the outside world is most concerned about whether Stable Diffusion 3, which has not yet been fully opened, will continue to be open source.
This incident once again highlights the competitive pressure and uncertainty of the business model in the field of AI. The future development of Stability AI and the future of the Stable Diffusion project have become the focus of industry attention.