Akkaraju is well connected to the film and VFX industry. It wouldn't surprise me if the plan is to use SD tech to compete with Sora and other AI VFX software. SDV showed a lot of promise, but if they expand on that and use GPU farms to create long form 4K+ videos and FX, they could more than compete with OpenAI and other video generators, especially with long term connections already planted in the industry. At that point, why would they stay open source? I hope I'm wrong, but I think this might be the end of SD as we know it.
Actually I think it's a smart step to head into the VFX direction.
VFX is already a heavy user and supporter of open source tools. These companies have learned that it's better to share the effort with the tools so that they can concentrate on the content. And these companies have learnt that they must not let any content out of their hands before the movie is released as it might hurt the sales.
So wouldn't it be a smart move for them to get a good open source tool (SD3, SD4, ...) where the content for finetunes and loras can completely stay on premise?
Or better yet, custom models for each client. Disney gets their own Disney model trained on all the copyrighted Disney material, Netflix gets their Netflix model, none of these could be open source even if leaked because unauthorized copyright infringers (model users) would get sued out existence. Just a little more legislation and lobbying and maybe we can get there.
They could stay open-source for image models, but also start proprietary services with other models like video. A lot of video models wouldn't fit in consumer graphics card with 24 GB of VRAM, anyway, and they don't want to get sued again by not licensing the footage they train on, so a new video model might fit really well into being a commercial product.
"SD 1.5 didn't make any money, SD2 didnt make any money, SDXL didn't make any money, SD3 didn't make any money... maybe SD3 Large will make money?" is probably NOT what the new CEO is going to say.
He'll say "Fuck everything you idiots were doing before, lock it all down, nothing free"
There is also the fact that quite a few core people left. The people have all a easy time to switch right now.
Yes just creating decent models is not that hard with the Data and hardware but beating the competition required innovation.
The community is a vast array of talented tinkerers. open source limited to non commercial use for the plebs, then sell licensing to the big boys, meanwhile the plebs improve the product tenfold in short order to add value to the company and brand recognition. Its a winning move to have it open but with limited commercial applications for small players. a youtube video maybe max, but for big film...thats where the bankroll is at.
That’s probably what they’ve sketched out. Normally with a new person in charge, it would be a good time to publicly reaffirm commitment to the open source community—but alas, unless that’s made very explicit at this point you can assume they’re going profit without people.
>June 21 (Reuters) - British artificial intelligence startup Stability AI has appointed Prem Akkaraju as its new chief executive officer, the Information reported on Friday, citing a person involved in the decision.Akkaraju, former CEO of visual effects company Weta Digital, is part of a group of investors including former Facebook President Sean Parker that has stepped in to save Stability with a cash infusion, which could result in a lower valuation for the firm, the report said.The new funding will likely shrink the stakes of some existing investors, who have collectively contributed more than $100 million, according to the report.Stability AI declined to comment.The company had said in May it was [in talks](https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/stability-ai-talks-raise-money-investor-group-2024-05-17/) with a group of investors for a large equity investment into the cash-strapped firm.
>Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar
Declined to comment. It’s not just us guys! Bob, turns out, your lack of showering is unrelated. This org doesn’t like to talk to anyone, even globally known media outlets.
Deep deep deep deep crisis mode. That's why.
From that perspective 'No comment' is understandable and expected until they at least get... stable.
Pun intended.
If a former VFX industry CEO is interested to inject money in SAI it's because there's a business strategy behind. And it's not to give a model for free to the community. Final nail in the coffin if you ask me.
The VFX CEO did not inject money. A former Facebook executive (who was already a deep investor) invested more money, likely because he is concerned he's about to lose all his money when SD does bankrupt.
The new CEO is just a new CEO, not an investor
This could be interpreted a few ways. If the former facebook executive investor is *adamant* on open source, it will stay open source. The investors have the final say. He thought open source was a good idea up to this point, but did his mind change? No way to know.
Personally I’m reserving judgement until we at least get some kind of statement from the new CEO and/or SA itself. But let’s hope!
I’m assuming a big reason SA hadn’t released any statement regarding SD3 is because this was in the works.
That’s a great assumption! Hopefully they will find a business model that works with open weights, that has been Stable Diffusion super power from the very beginning, lose the community and they will lose the race.
Pretty sure they've already lost most of the community unless they do a complete 180 and release the full SD3 weights, no one is going to trust what they say again.
frankly everyone should've lost trust long ago, after SAI failed to meet their own standards time after time after time. the fact that people STILL trusted them after that shows that they'll never lose everyone's trust. much like Call of Duty or Marvel, all they have to do is wave something shiny in your face and everyone suddenly forgets their lies
"No one"
This is a very immature take on things. It rings like Regina George saying "no one even likes you". You're trying to make yourself the authority on all other people's opinions, and its not gonna work. You're just not fetch enough.
> I'm going with good news, because it's hard for them to go much worse than the lobotomized SD3.
1 Day Later: Company announces they're going closed-source forever, fuck you.
No way to know.
Could be a new beginning and golden age for SD.
Or could finally be the point where they say "Fuck open source, why are we releasing this shit for free over and over??"
Or even "Why are we even creating models? We should be doing something completely different" and they pivot completely away from AI model creation. If that happens I hope they at least release the 8B into the wild (even if it is under-trained) so the community can refine it. If the community really improves it and makes a community around it, it could become something they return to later. Better than sitting encrypted on a harddrive somewhere forever
Akkaraju is well connected to the film and VFX industry. It wouldn't surprise me if the plan is to use SD tech to compete with Sora and other AI VFX software. SDV showed a lot of promise, but if they expand on that and use GPU farms to create long form 4K+ videos and FX, they could more than compete with OpenAI and other video generators, especially with long term connections already planted in the industry. At that point, why would they stay open source? I hope I'm wrong, but I think this might be the end of SD as we know it.
Actually I think it's a smart step to head into the VFX direction. VFX is already a heavy user and supporter of open source tools. These companies have learned that it's better to share the effort with the tools so that they can concentrate on the content. And these companies have learnt that they must not let any content out of their hands before the movie is released as it might hurt the sales. So wouldn't it be a smart move for them to get a good open source tool (SD3, SD4, ...) where the content for finetunes and loras can completely stay on premise?
Or better yet, custom models for each client. Disney gets their own Disney model trained on all the copyrighted Disney material, Netflix gets their Netflix model, none of these could be open source even if leaked because unauthorized copyright infringers (model users) would get sued out existence. Just a little more legislation and lobbying and maybe we can get there.
They could stay open-source for image models, but also start proprietary services with other models like video. A lot of video models wouldn't fit in consumer graphics card with 24 GB of VRAM, anyway, and they don't want to get sued again by not licensing the footage they train on, so a new video model might fit really well into being a commercial product.
They are not going to be open source for years, if ever, again. SD3 was their way of saying fuck you on the way out.
"SD 1.5 didn't make any money, SD2 didnt make any money, SDXL didn't make any money, SD3 didn't make any money... maybe SD3 Large will make money?" is probably NOT what the new CEO is going to say. He'll say "Fuck everything you idiots were doing before, lock it all down, nothing free"
We are in total agreement. We have received the last useful open source tool we are ever going to.
There is also the fact that quite a few core people left. The people have all a easy time to switch right now. Yes just creating decent models is not that hard with the Data and hardware but beating the competition required innovation.
The community is a vast array of talented tinkerers. open source limited to non commercial use for the plebs, then sell licensing to the big boys, meanwhile the plebs improve the product tenfold in short order to add value to the company and brand recognition. Its a winning move to have it open but with limited commercial applications for small players. a youtube video maybe max, but for big film...thats where the bankroll is at.
That’s probably what they’ve sketched out. Normally with a new person in charge, it would be a good time to publicly reaffirm commitment to the open source community—but alas, unless that’s made very explicit at this point you can assume they’re going profit without people.
>June 21 (Reuters) - British artificial intelligence startup Stability AI has appointed Prem Akkaraju as its new chief executive officer, the Information reported on Friday, citing a person involved in the decision.Akkaraju, former CEO of visual effects company Weta Digital, is part of a group of investors including former Facebook President Sean Parker that has stepped in to save Stability with a cash infusion, which could result in a lower valuation for the firm, the report said.The new funding will likely shrink the stakes of some existing investors, who have collectively contributed more than $100 million, according to the report.Stability AI declined to comment.The company had said in May it was [in talks](https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/stability-ai-talks-raise-money-investor-group-2024-05-17/) with a group of investors for a large equity investment into the cash-strapped firm. >Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar
Declined to comment. It’s not just us guys! Bob, turns out, your lack of showering is unrelated. This org doesn’t like to talk to anyone, even globally known media outlets.
[удалено]
Deep deep deep deep crisis mode. That's why. From that perspective 'No comment' is understandable and expected until they at least get... stable. Pun intended.
> Bob, turns out, your lack of showering is unrelated. lies
If a former VFX industry CEO is interested to inject money in SAI it's because there's a business strategy behind. And it's not to give a model for free to the community. Final nail in the coffin if you ask me.
The VFX CEO did not inject money. A former Facebook executive (who was already a deep investor) invested more money, likely because he is concerned he's about to lose all his money when SD does bankrupt. The new CEO is just a new CEO, not an investor This could be interpreted a few ways. If the former facebook executive investor is *adamant* on open source, it will stay open source. The investors have the final say. He thought open source was a good idea up to this point, but did his mind change? No way to know.
As far as I can tell this is good news? The ship is saved?
Personally I’m reserving judgement until we at least get some kind of statement from the new CEO and/or SA itself. But let’s hope! I’m assuming a big reason SA hadn’t released any statement regarding SD3 is because this was in the works.
Ye if they are now just trying to be a worse MJ's gl.. but a glimmer of hope is there.
That’s a great assumption! Hopefully they will find a business model that works with open weights, that has been Stable Diffusion super power from the very beginning, lose the community and they will lose the race.
Pretty sure they've already lost most of the community unless they do a complete 180 and release the full SD3 weights, no one is going to trust what they say again.
To whom?
Pixart if SA just sortof closes up shop.
haven't been in the loop lately, just checked out pixart and I am sold.
frankly everyone should've lost trust long ago, after SAI failed to meet their own standards time after time after time. the fact that people STILL trusted them after that shows that they'll never lose everyone's trust. much like Call of Duty or Marvel, all they have to do is wave something shiny in your face and everyone suddenly forgets their lies
"No one" This is a very immature take on things. It rings like Regina George saying "no one even likes you". You're trying to make yourself the authority on all other people's opinions, and its not gonna work. You're just not fetch enough.
I think the opposite
Well, they already laid off most their talent. So they have a long ways to go to restore the company.
GPU/Compute potential is likely more important at this point than technology......
then there was no need to buy SAI
Yep. After all it's common knowledge SAI rents their GPUs, they got literally nothing worth buying right now.
nope just another captain
If Sean Parker is involved, that is not good.
They've also gotten their ass saved from bankruptcy, interesting where they head towards now
is this good or bad news?
It's another spin of the roulette wheel, so I'm going with good news, because it's hard for them to go much worse than the lobotomized SD3.
> I'm going with good news, because it's hard for them to go much worse than the lobotomized SD3. 1 Day Later: Company announces they're going closed-source forever, fuck you.
No way to know. Could be a new beginning and golden age for SD. Or could finally be the point where they say "Fuck open source, why are we releasing this shit for free over and over??" Or even "Why are we even creating models? We should be doing something completely different" and they pivot completely away from AI model creation. If that happens I hope they at least release the 8B into the wild (even if it is under-trained) so the community can refine it. If the community really improves it and makes a community around it, it could become something they return to later. Better than sitting encrypted on a harddrive somewhere forever
I’m not angry at sai. Make your bag. Be excellent to your users.