Stability AI CEO: Hero or Hype?

Welcome to another edition of what we’re determined to make the best damn newsletter in AI. Here we’ll break down AI topics that matter, open your mind to use cases, and keep you ahead of the curve.

Our #1 goal is to be useful. So please shoot us an email 📩 if you have questions or feedback, and especially if you implement something we share!

Here's what we're covering today:

• What you need to know about the current Stability AI controversy

• We’re obsessed with how easy it is to combine the power of AI with no-code

• Regulations around AI are starting to pick up some traction

Let’s get to it! 👇

TODAY'S PERSPECTIVE

Stability AI's Controversy: Is Another FTX-Like Collapse in the Making?

Forbes recently published a spicy article. In it, they question the credentials and accomplishments of Emad, the founder and CEO of Stability AI which is valued over $1B.

The company's meteoric rise from pre-seed to unicorn status has caught the attention of the business world, but now some are wondering if this growth is built on shaky ground.

Are we witnessing another FTX-like collapse in the making?

(Our perspective: no. But we'll explain).

First, the Forbes piece attacked from all sides.

• They challenged the validity of Emad's background and credentials.

• They pushed that Stable Diffusion, which is attributed to Stability AI in public discourse, was actually developed by an outside research lab and compute was funded by the company.

• They accuse Emad of overstating progress, not hitting payroll, and having funding woes.

• And even highlighting that the $100M they closed last fall was done in less than 6 days

In response, Emad took to Twitter (as one does in AI).

He refuted everything, and urged his team to focus on "shipping."

While the Forbes article raises valid concerns about hype and investor diligence in the AI industry, we don't see Stability AI's situation as quite the doomsday scenario that was painted.

Stability AI is an influential player in the AI landscape. If they were to falter, it would undoubtedly slow the open source community's momentum, which could cause us to have more AI systems that are behind closed doors (like ChatGPT), a less active public research community, and a whole set of follow-on issues.

But Stability AI isn’t the only open source player. Meta has actually been more to thank for current, high performing open source large language models than Stability AI.

So, while the Emad saga may cause some ripples, our take - it's not as big of a deal as some people might think.

USE CASE DEEP DIVE FROM OUR PARTNERS

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For premium members, we have an interactive workshop this Thursday with the Bubble team where they’ll cover the 0 to 1 to get started. Check out the announcement in Slack and grab your spot here!

LINKS

For your reading list 📚

AI and regulations…

• Google and Facebook were urged by the EU to label AI-generated content

• And some in the UK are even proposing that developers shouldn’t work on AI unless they have a license to do so, similar to medical and legal fields

AI and jobs…

• A report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, states that AI contributed to nearly 4,000 job losses last month, amid the total 80,000 layoff announcements in the US in May

• Meanwhile, iHeartMedia tells employees to steer clear of ChatGPT, and even banned it on company devices

And if you're really nerdy...

• Zoom can now natively give you AI summaries of the meetings you’ve missed

• Apple announced its VR headset - Vision Pro - which offers augmented reality and spatial computing, powered with the help of AI

That's all!

We'll see you again on Thursday. Thoughts, feedback and questions are much appreciated - respond here or shoot us a note at [email protected].

Cheers,

🪄 The AI Exchange Team