UK AI CompaniesStability AI AnnouncementLayoffs20 people, accounting for about 10% of its total employees. The day before, the company had just announced the expansion of the use of its flagship model.
The layoffs come after a turbulent few weeks following the departure of its founding CEO. According to CNBC, the UK-based AI company, which runs a steadily proliferating text-to-image model, said the layoffs are part of the company’s “strategic plan to reduce our cost base, strengthen alignment with our investors and partners, and enable the team to continue to develop and release innovative products.” The company said in a memo to employees that the layoffs were not yet specified.
Source Note: The image is generated by AI, and the image is authorized by Midjourney
Stability AI has gone through a turbulent period in recent months, with the departure of several prominent researchers and its founding CEO Emad Mostaque. Mostaque resigned from his position and the company's board in March, saying he wanted to "pursue decentralized AI." Stability AI's layoffs mark the first time since the rise of generative AI.The firstMajor AI-based model layoffs.
The company recently released the next generation of its flagship model, Stable Diffusion, and announced API access for Stable Diffusion 3. It also announced a new version of its Stable Audio text-to-audio AI model this month.
However, even as the company continues to release AI models, it has also become the subject of lawsuits for allegedly using copyrighted material to train its models. Last year, Getty Images sued Stability AI. The case will soon go to trial in the UK.