Stability AI is undergoing a restructuring process that will involve staff layoffs, according to Reuters on Thursday.
This move follows the resignation of founder Emad Mostaque as CEO several weeks ago.
The restructuring reflects a new direction for the AI startup following Mostaque’s departure and the challenges posed by competitors like OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and French startup Mistral.
Mostaque left his roles as chief executive and board member of the company, which produces the Stable Diffusion image-generation tool, in March to pursue decentralized AI initiatives.
Interim co-CEOs Shan Shan Wong and Christian Laforte conveyed in an internal memo to employees that these decisions were made with careful consideration and aim to optimize parts of the business to enhance focus and sustainability.
Stability AI, known for its AI models that generate audio and video from text prompts, had approximately 200 employees globally as of last October.
The affected employees will be individually notified, and the U.K.-based company plans to conduct a regular town hall meeting on Thursday, as stated in the memo. However, the specific number of layoffs was not disclosed.
Stability AI has received investments from notable firms such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sound Ventures (founded by actor Ashton Kutcher), Coatue, and Intel, according to data from Crunchbase and Pitchbook.
The British company made its Stable Diffusion 3 model available to developers through an application programming interface on Wednesday.
