Who Made Stable Diffusion?
Stability Diffusion is currently the rage in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) image generation and machine learning. While most AI image generators run in the cloud, Stable Diffusion allows users to run the program on their personal computers and generate as many images as they want, without ever connecting to a cloud.
It’s natural to want to know more about this exciting innovation and the brilliant minds behind its creation.
What Is Stable Diffusion?
Stable Diffusion is a new text-to-image diffusion model. It is an open-source machine learning model that can be used to generate and modify images based on text prompts. The AI software was trained to generate images from text, modify images based on text, or fill in details on low-resolution or low-detail images.
Similar to cloud-based AI image generators, Stable Diffusion art is based on billions of images and can produce results comparable to those produced by cloud-hosted image generators. In addition, Stable Diffusion is unfiltered, which places it above other AI art-generating systems.
Who Created Stable Diffusion?
Stable Diffusion was made by researchers at Stability AI, a start-up company based in London and Los Altos, California, that focuses on designing and implementing solutions using collective intelligence and augmented technology.
Founded by Emad Mostaque, Stability AI created the Stable Diffusion with the help of collaborators, including RunwayML, LMU Munich, EleutherAI, and LAION. After months of testing, the AI model and code of Stable Diffusion were publicly published as open-source on 22nd August, 2022. Stability AI announced that it also plans on launching a hosted version of Stable Diffusion for testing on the web.
Stable Diffusion has a permissive and free licence, allowing users to use the software for commercial and non-commercial purposes. However, the software should not be used to break applicable laws, generate false information, discriminate against individuals, or provide medical advice. Emad Mostaque said during the release of Stable Diffusion that people should “use this in an ethical, moral and legal manner.”
The Hype Around Stable Diffusion
Stable Diffusion is being touted as a game changer in AI-image generation as it is one of the few software programs of this type that can run a PC. Stability Diffusion is not hosted on the cloud and has an extremely permissive licence, allowing users to install and run it on their PCs for free. Stable Diffusion is open-source, meaning the original source code is available for free and may be redistributed and modified.
In addition to being one of the few image generators not needing a cloud service, Stable Diffusion runs at remarkable speeds and generates incredible quality. Stable Diffusion works on the average gaming PC that has a graphics processing unit (GPU) with at least six gigabytes (GB) of VRAM and ten or more GB of internal storage space on a hard drive or solid-state drive.
While not every PC will meet these requirements, Stable Diffusion gives users an on-demand artistic concept that can generate anything imaginable, and will work with your commands until you are satisfied with the final result.
Drawback of Stable Diffusion
One major complaint users have about Stable Diffusion is the lack of a polished user interface, as most other leading AI image generators have. In addition, the set-up procedure can be a bit confusing, as it requires users to first install two pieces of software, Git and Miniconda3. Git allows developers to manage different versions of the software, while Miniconda3 lets you download, install, and manage all of the libraries required for Stable Diffusion to function without very much manual intervention.
If you want to install the program, be sure to read our tutorial for using Stable Diffusion before you get started.
The good news is that after installing and fully setting up the software, Stable Diffusion is easy to use. All you need to do is describe what you want as specifically as possible, and the powerful AI model produces some of the most stunning images you can get from an AI image generator. If you want to create a photorealistic image, make sure to include terms relating to a realistic image. If you want something inspired by the style of a specific artist, mention the artist.
Final Thoughts
Despite being new software, Stable Diffusion has received an enormous amount of interest. Its popularity is largely driven by the fact that it brings local AI art generation to the average PC. It is a free, yet powerful, tool that opens up possibilities for AI art generation.