2023 has been a pivotal year for Stability AI, as the generative AI startup has been tirelessly working on rolling out multiple models. To further accelerate its model rollout, the company has announced a new membership model. Stability AI, a venture-backed company established in 2019, has successfully secured significant funding, including a $101 million round in 2022. The company initially gained recognition with its stable diffusion text-to-image generation AI model and has been monetizing its models in various ways. Many of its models have been made freely available to researchers.
Standardizing Commercial Use
The introduction of the new membership model aims to standardize the commercial usage of Stability AI’s models, allowing for broader enterprise deployments and the development of businesses built upon these models. The membership options include:
- A non-commercial personal and research use free tier
- A professional tier priced at $20 a month
- An enterprise tier with custom pricing for larger organizations
Despite the new membership approach, Stability AI remains steadfast in its commitment to open models. Emad Mostaque, the founder and CEO of Stability AI, assured, “We remain committed to open models. The code and weights will continue to be available for all tiers of our membership, including commercial and non-commercial usage, similar to the Meta Llama model.”
Membership Benefits
The use of Stability AI models by general consumers has been possible through Stability AI’s Clipdrop site. However, the new membership model primarily focuses on self-hosted applications, where users can have full control over their data and products within their own environment. In contrast, Clipdrop serves as a consumer-facing imaging application that allows users to experiment and create using Stability AI models.
Regarding existing usage, Mostaque clarified that no changes are expected. However, new users will now need to obtain a membership for commercial and non-commercial use. As for the benefits of membership, even non-commercial (free) members can anticipate value. Early access to future model releases, invitations to public forums, and opportunities to be featured on Stability AI channels will be extended to free personal users. Meanwhile, commercial users hold particular interest for Mostaque, as he sees a strong demand from funded startups and large companies. The suite of models offered by Stability AI provides an effortless solution as the adoption of generative AI continues to rise in the business landscape. Mostaque believes that this new membership approach will serve as a solid revenue base that will grow over time.
Expanding Model Portfolio
In addition to the new membership model, Stability AI is diligently expanding its collection of models. In 2023, the company has already introduced several new models:
- SDXL: A high-end text-to-image model
- SDXL Turbo: A faster version of SDXL
- StableLM Zephyr 3B: A model for text content generation
- Stable Audio: A model for audio generation
- Stable Video: A model for video generation
- StableCode: A model for code generation
- Stable Zero123: A model for building 3D images
Emphasizing the significance of these new models, Mostaque remarked, “This is the first of a series of 3D models from our talented team led by Varun Jhampani, who joined us from Google Brain. We believe next year will be the year of generative media, just as this year has been the year of language models.”
