Celebrating one year(ish) of Stable Diffusion … and what a year it’s been!

On August 22, 2022, Stability AI co-released Stable Diffusion alongside talented researchers from LMU Munich and Runway ML. It was a watershed moment in AI that unlocked the power of text-to-image models.

One year later, we’ve grown our team by a factor of four, launched more than twenty new products, and become the only independent, open, multimodal generative AI company in the world. TIME even named us one of its Most Influential Companies (under the category “biggest disruptors”)! Our secret sauce is no secret: We work hard, have the best talent and the most committed community of AI supporters in the world. 

Stability AI is on a mission to build the foundation that activates humanity’s potential through our open access foundation models, allowing developers everywhere to download and build on top of our code for free. Easy accessibility meant that in just two months, Stable Diffusion had garnered more than 10 million users globally, creating a moment where “the doors were off their hinges,” according to MIT Technology Review.

That was just the start. Since then, we’ve open sourced three more versions of Stable Diffusion. Our latest model, SDXL 1.0, can now generate four HD images in less than three seconds, and nearly 13 billion images have been generated using SDXL. Our tech was even used to recreate brain activity in medical research, as referenced in Scientific American. 

Over the past year, we’ve released more than a dozen more open access foundation models. A recent review of StableCode, our acclaimed large language model for code generation, summed up why we do this: “By democratizing AI-powered coding assistance, Stability AI opens the door for individuals from various backgrounds to harness the power of technology in problem-solving through coding. This approach could level the global technology playing field.”

Along the way, we’ve created important alliances in the AI space, starting with Amazon Web Services, and garnered leading enterprise customers like HubSpot and Jasper – as well as dozens of developers using our API. In March, we completed our first acquisition, buying Init ML, makers of the popular Clipdrop application. These alliances and deals have ushered our business into record revenue territory for the past three months. 

Along the way, we’ve recognized the need for oversight in this fast moving space as part of a proactive effort to work with governments on securing artificial intelligence. In May, our CEO wrote an open letter to the United States Senate emphasizing the importance of open models for a transparent, competitive, and resilient digital economy. In August, we took part in a White House-sponsored safety initiative, the largest-ever AI chatbot hackfest at DEFCON 31.

We have also seen our team grow. In one year, Stability AI has gone from a team of 50 to a team of nearly 200 employees around the world. Our world-leading AI research team also features Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann and Dominik Lorenz, who led the original Stable Diffusion release as academics. Today, Stability AI maintains senior personnel across the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, the UAE, China and Japan.  

We’ve also fostered an incredible community of AI artists, developers and enthusiasts with nearly 270,000 members on Stable Diffusion’s Discord channel. Two hundred of those members put their GPUs to work during our incredible #DiffuseTogether competition collaboration with music legend Peter Gabriel in June.

Thanks to our team alongside our community,  partners and clients, Stability AI stands as the world’s only independent, open, multi model, generative AI company – and we are only just getting started.