Meta is partnering with Midjourney to license the startup’s AI picture and video era know-how, Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang introduced Friday in a submit on Threads. Wang says Meta’s analysis groups will collaborate with Midjourney to convey its know-how into future AI fashions and merchandise.
“To make sure Meta is ready to ship the absolute best merchandise for folks it would require taking an all-of-the-above strategy,” Wang mentioned. “This implies world-class expertise, formidable compute roadmap, and dealing with the perfect gamers throughout the {industry}.”
The Midjourney partnership may assist Meta develop merchandise that compete with industry-leading AI picture and video fashions, similar to OpenAI’s Sora, Black Forest Lab’s Flux, and Google’s Veo. Final 12 months, Meta rolled out its personal AI picture era software, Think about, into a number of of its merchandise, together with Fb, Instagram, and Messenger. Meta additionally has an AI video era software, Film Gen, that permits customers to create movies from prompts.
The licensing settlement with Midjourney marks Meta’s newest deal to get forward within the AI race. Earlier this 12 months, CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a hiring spree for AI expertise, providing some researchers compensation packages price upwards of $100 million. The social media big additionally invested $14 billion in Scale AI, and bought the AI voice startup Play AI.
Meta has held talks with a number of different main AI labs about different acquisitions, and Zuckerberg even spoke with Elon Musk about becoming a member of his $97 billion takeover bid of OpenAI (Meta in the end didn’t be part of the provide, and OpenAI denied Musk’s bid).
Whereas the phrases of Meta’s take care of Midjourney stay unknown, the startup’s CEO, David Holz, mentioned in a submit on X that his firm stays impartial with no buyers; Midjourney is among the few main AI mannequin builders that has by no means taken on outdoors funding. At one level, Meta talked with Midjourney about buying the startup, based on Upstarts Media.
Midjourney was based in 2022 and shortly grew to become a frontrunner within the AI picture era area for its sensible, distinctive model. By 2023, the startup was reportedly on tempo to generate $200 million in income. The startup sells subscriptions beginning at $10 per 30 days. It presents pricier tiers, which supply extra AI picture generations, that price as a lot as $120 per 30 days. In June, the startup launched its first AI video mannequin, V1.
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Meta’s partnership with Midjourney comes simply two months after the startup was sued by Disney and Common, alleging that it skilled AI picture fashions on copyrighted works. A number of AI mannequin builders — together with Meta — face comparable allegations from copyright holders, nevertheless, latest court docket instances pertaining to AI coaching knowledge have sided with tech corporations.
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