The fierce competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) image generation space has taken a dramatic turn.
Midjourney, the leading text-to-image generation platform, recently announced an indefinite ban on all employees of its rival, Stability AI.
This unprecedented move comes on the heels of accusations from Midjourney that Stability AI employees were involved in a data scraping attempt that caused a significant outage.
How did we get there?
On March 2nd, Midjourney users experienced a nearly 24-hour outage that prevented them from accessing generated images. Midjourney acknowledged the outage in a Discord announcement, citing “botnet-like activity” as the suspected cause.
According to a Midjourney business update call, someone allegedly attempted to scrape prompt and image pairs from the Midjourney platform, causing an extended outage.
This was later linked to Stability AI, as Midjourney claims it identified multiple paid accounts connected to a Stability AI data team member.
AI industry expert Nick St. Pierre has shared this post on X, announcing the ban:
In MJ office hours they just said someone at Stability AI was trying to grab all the prompt and image pairs in the middle of a night on Saturday and brought down their service.
MJ is banning all of the stabilityAI employees from Midjourney immediately
This is breaking now
— Nick St. Pierre (@nickfloats) March 6, 2024
What is data scraping?
Data scraping, in the context of AI models, involves extracting large sets of data, like images and their corresponding text descriptions (prompts). This data is essential in training and refining image generation AI models.
However, the ethics and legality of data scraping depend on the terms of service of the platform where the data originates, as well as any applicable copyright and privacy laws.
Stability AI’s response
Stability AI has vehemently denied any involvement in the alleged data scraping attempt. The company expresses surprise regarding the allegations and asserts that it was not made aware of any wrongdoing by its employees.
However, they acknowledge the severity of the accusations and any potential misconduct.
Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI, has responded to allegations with the following words:
If anyone did do this on team (have asked, will dig, also happy if MJ reaches out direct) its not great but obviously not a DDoS attack but unintentional.
Certainly not instructed by us/Stability AI tho, really happy with our dataset & the augmentations we have on that.
— Emad acc/acc (@EMostaque) March 6, 2024
This incident has undoubtedly intensified the already competitive dynamic between Midjourney and Stability AI. The ban is perceived as an aggressive move and could lead to further retaliation or escalation.
The bigger picture
The AI community is divided in its reaction to the ban. Some support Midjourney’s decision, citing the need to protect intellectual property and prevent unethical data usage.
Others criticize the move as excessive and potentially harmful to open-source AI development.
The ban has ignited a larger debate about responsible data usage as AI technology continues to advance rapidly.
Featured image credit: Freepik.
