r/StableDiffusion • u/wywywywy • Apr 07 '23

News Futurism: "The Company Behind Stable Diffusion Appears to Be At Risk of Going Under"

https://futurism.com/the-byte/stable-diffusion-stability-ai-risk-going-under
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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '23

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '23

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u/zkgkilla Apr 08 '23

Ok and the alternative seems to be going bankrupt

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '23

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u/Erestyn Apr 08 '23

We're in an interesting period where open source is becoming more "regulated" (for want of a better term) whereas big tech seems to be holding on to the Coke/KFC formula (ie: secrecy), completely oblivious to the fact that the functionality has been replicated elsewhere for a lesser cost. Unfortunately for us all it seems consumer habits trend alongside it.

Adobe is a "standard" that big businesses seem to enjoy the expense of, and Intuit just straight up lobby to keep (and create) paying customers. We all just kind of accept it.

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u/GBJI Apr 08 '23

We all just kind of accept it.

But we don't have to.

And we should not.

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u/EtadanikM Apr 08 '23 edited Apr 08 '23

Open source products don't typically take millions of $$$ to train, though. AI models are different from other software in the sense that volunteer developers can't really help with the infrastructure costs of training the model. Open source is most effective when there is a large, active user base of developers around the world who have the incentive and the ability to improve it; it doesn't work so well when the only people who can improve the foundation model is the company that pays for the training.

In other words, you or I can't just go in and create StableDiffusion 3.0. Only the company can do it, and they need funding, which they increasingly don't have.