drsimonz t1_ispt7ul wrote on October 17, 2022 at 8:14 PM

Reply to comment by SituatedSynapses in Stability AI, the startup behind Stable Diffusion, raises $101M by phantasm_ai

I wouldn't get too excited. It's very common for companies to start charging for previously free services. Stable Diffusion was very well timed since it was able to ride the considerable DALL-E hype, while sweeping the rug out from under them by publishing the weights. But at the end, this is a for-profit company and will inevitably need to deliver to shareholders by creating revenue streams. There's an unavoidable conflict of interest once you realize you're competing with your own open source distribution.

blueSGL t1_ispuvph wrote on October 17, 2022 at 8:25 PM

>once you realize you're competing with your own open source distribution.

ain't that the truth, I'm amazed when I listen to Emad Mostaque (founder of Stability AI) talk about their implementation of Stable Diffusion and he's going on about upcoming features 'coming soon' and I've already been running them for days/weeks on the Automatic1111 fork, it's just bizarre.

DukkyDrake t1_isqfwfv wrote on October 17, 2022 at 10:53 PM

The difference between a polished release and a nightly build.

rnimmer t1_isr7q3p wrote on October 18, 2022 at 2:34 AM

Your take assumes they will be unsuccessful at their mission. They are building towards an automated future. If they (and the rest of the industry) are successful, the economy will be transformed in ways not seen since the industrial revolution. The competition-driven profit motive is being replaced. This tech is way bigger than any one company.

drsimonz t1_isr8npb wrote on October 18, 2022 at 2:42 AM

Sorry if I sounded too cynical. I am looking forward to seeing what this company does! But I do think that taking serious investment money is almost guaranteed to affect their priorities. Just look at OpenAI. It was all "save humanity this" and "working for a better future that" but now that they're backed by Microsoft their ideals seem to be a bit less lofty. And let's not forget Google's long lost "don't be evil" motto.

Now IANAL so I don't know if Stability AI has some kind of clever charter document that prevents the their long term goals from being undermined even if the board of directors changes their mind...but I'd be pretty surprised if they did. Honestly it doesn't bode well for The Control Problem when you consider that we can't even prevent corporations, made entirely of human employees, from turning evil eventually.

mart1nm t1_isufz7c wrote on October 18, 2022 at 7:56 PM

>competition in AI generated images, dalle2, midjourney, and others. Shows how massive they expect AI generated art to be. I also hope that all the money doesn't make them like openAI and go closed source.

You have a very optimistic view of all of this, could you talk more about the transformation of the economy or point me to some good sources?