What is happening at “Stability Ai” the open source generative AI company?

Dear Lion Herald Reader,

Recently in a statement it was confirmed that Emad Mostaque resigned from his role as CEO of Stability AI, the company he founded and from his position on the Board of Directors of the company to pursue decentralized AI.

Stability Ai is the company behind  the AI-augmented visual art platform generating images based on text. It offers an open API interface that is a text-to-image diffusion model and supports generative AI to produce images for multi-purpose. It develops models for image, language, audio, video, 3D, and biology.

How It all Started

The Stability AI mission began in 2019, democratizing AI and building a global foundation to activate humanity’s potential. 

After graduating from Oxford with a master’s in mathematics and computer science, Mostaque co-founded and bootstrapped Stability AI in 2020, motivated both by a personal fascination with AI and what he characterized as a lack of “organization” within the open source AI community.

 Stability AI quickly became a household name in AI with the public release of Stable Diffusion in August 2022. Stable Diffusion is made possible by a new generative AI technique called diffusion, which teaches an AI model to effectively destroy an image by introducing noise and re-construct it, allowing it to learn techniques to learn how to build images.

In October 2022, the startup  announced that it raised $101 million in a funding round led by Coatue and Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from O’Shaughnessy Ventures LLC, catapulting  the valuation of the company at $1 billion post-money.

Now what is happening?

As British media outlet Computing.co.uk notes  , tensions between Stability AI and its major investors, notably Coatue Management, reached a boiling point last year, with the latter demanding Mostaque's resignation in a strongly-worded letter to the management.

The situation escalated further with a stream of departures of senior staff in recent months, further destabilizing the company.

Reports from Bloomberg indicate that Stability AI explored the possibility of selling itself amid pressure from investors concerned about its financial performance.

Quoted in the official Stability announcement, Emad Mostaque said that he was proud two years after bringing on the first developer to have led Stability to hundreds of millions of downloads and the best models across modalities. Noting that he believes strongly in Stability AI’s mission and feel the company is in capable hands. 

It is now time to ensure AI remains open and decentralized, concluded Emad Mostaque

In a recent post on social media, Mostaque shared his decision to resign, citing his motivation to tackle the issue of centralized governance in AI.

 "Not going to beat centralized AI with more centralized AI," he remarked.

 Mostaque emphasized the significance of transparency and distributed governance as AI technology becomes more integral in society. 

"The concentration of power in AI is bad for us all. I decided to step down to fix this at Stability & elsewhere," he explained.

What does this mean? Let us explore

Centralized AI and decentralized AI refer to different paradigms for organizing and deploying artificial intelligence systems. Here's a breakdown of key differences:

In a centralized AI system, all data and processing occur in a single location or under the control of a single entity. Data is collected from various sources and sent to a central location for analysis and decision-making.

The decision-making process is typically handled by a central server or a cluster of servers, where the AI algorithms are deployed. Examples of centralized AI systems include traditional cloud-based AI platforms where data is collected, processed, and stored in data centers managed by large corporations.

On the other hand, decentralized AI distributes data and processing across multiple nodes or devices, with no single point of control. Data is often processed locally on individual devices or edge computing nodes, reducing the need for constant communication with a central server.

Decision-making can occur locally on individual devices or through consensus mechanisms among multiple nodes in a network. Decentralized AI systems are often associated with edge computing, where data processing occurs closer to the source of data generation. Examples of decentralized AI include edge AI applications deployed on smartphones, IoT devices, or distributed networks like blockchain.

What is happening next?

As CEO WORLD  Magazine points out, the conjecture surrounding Mostaque’s departure underscores broader apprehensions regarding AI power dynamics. Analysts warn of monopolistic tendencies among tech behemoths, foreshadowing potential industry consolidation. 

The board has appointed two interim co-CEOs to lead Stability AI — COO Shan Shan Wong and CTO Christian Laforte — while it conducts a search for a permanent CEO. 

“As we search for a permanent CEO, I have full confidence that Shan Shan Wong and Christian Laforte, in their roles as interim co-CEOs, will adeptly steer the company forward in developing and commercializing industry-leading generative AI products,” says Jim O’Shaughnessy, chairman of the board at Stability AI.

As the Verge reminds, Stability AI has popularized the stable diffusion method of AI, but has faced lawsuits around the data that Stable Diffusion is allegedly trained on. A lawsuit in the UK from Getty Images is heading to trial soon, and it could be a big moment for the legislative framework around generative AI products.

What are your views about Centralized AI and decentralized AI? Share with us in the comment section.

Thanks for reading! 

Fabrice Iranzi, (@iranzifabrice)

Founder and Editor in Chief, Lion Herald ( @LionHerald )

[email protected]

Tel +447706122028

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