Stability AI

Stability AI is an artificial intelligence company, best known for it's text-to-image model Stable Diffusion

History and founding
Stability AI was founded in 2019 by Emad Mostaque, who also initially funded the company.

In August 2022 Stability AI rose to prominence with the release of it's source and weights available text-to-image model Stable Diffusion

On March 23rd 2024 Emad Mostaque stepped down from his position as CEO. The board of directors appointed COO, Shan Shan Wong, and CTO, Christian Laforte, as the interim co-CEOs of Stability AI.

Funding and investors
Stability AI's early stages were significantly supported by Mostaque's own investments, alongside contributions from investment firms like Eros Investments. A notable milestone in the company's funding history was a $101 million investment round led by Coatue and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC also participating. .

Product and application
Stability AI has made contributions to the field of generative AI, most notably through Stable Diffusion. This AI model has change the way images can be generated from textual descriptions. Beyond Stable Diffusion, Stability AI also develops Video, Audio, 3D, and text models.

Litigation
Stability AI has faced legal challenges, notably from Getty Images, which accused the company of misusing over 12 million photos from its collection to train Stability AI's AI image-generation system, Stable Diffusion. This lawsuit, filed in Delaware federal court, is part of a series of actions against Stability AI concerning the use of images in AI training. Getty Images alleges that Stability AI copied these images without proper licensing, using them to enhance Stable Diffusion's ability to generate accurate depictions from user prompts. This case raises significant questions about copyright and the use of digital assets in training AI systems.