Stability AI may be one of the early big names in generative AI technology, but it’s been facing speculation in recent months about its financial health. In November reports suggested that investors were concerned, and perhaps even pushing for a sale of the company.
Now there’s a development: a new CEO (Prem Akkaraju, the former boss of special-effects company Weta Digital) and a group of investors injecting cash that includes a familiar name to the music industry.
Who he? Sean Parker, co-founder of the original Napster; early investor in Spotify and million-dollars-pooh-poohing Facebook svengali. Tech news site The Information described the investment as a “bailout” that “could result in a lower valuation for the firm”.
It also means that Parker is indirectly back in digital music: Stability AI has its Stable Audio music-creation model, trained on licensed production music – although the executive who launched it, Ed Newton-Rex, resigned last year in protest at the company’s wider policies around training and fair use.
