Meta Partners With Midjourney On Ai Image And Video Models

Meta is partnering pinch Midjourney to licence nan startup’s AI image and video procreation technology, Meta Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang announced Friday successful a station connected Threads. Wang says Meta’s investigation teams will collaborate pinch Midjourney to bring its exertion into early AI models and products.

“To guarantee Meta is capable to present nan champion imaginable products for group it will require taking an all-of-the-above approach,” Wang said. “This intends world-class talent, eager compute roadmap, and moving pinch nan champion players crossed nan industry.”

The Midjourney business could thief Meta create products that compete pinch industry-leading AI image and video models, specified arsenic OpenAI’s Sora, Black Forest Lab’s Flux, and Google’s Veo. Last year, Meta rolled retired its ain AI image procreation tool, Imagine, into respective of its products, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Meta besides has an AI video procreation tool, Movie Gen, that allows users to create videos from prompts.

The licensing statement pinch Midjourney marks Meta’s latest woody to get up successful nan AI race. Earlier this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg went connected a hiring spree for AI talent, offering immoderate researchers compensation packages worthy upwards of $100 million. The societal media elephantine besides invested $14 billion successful Scale AI, and acquired nan AI sound startup, Play AI.

Meta has held talks pinch respective different starring AI labs astir different acquisitions, and Zuckerberg moreover said pinch Elon Musk astir joining his $97 cardinal takeover bid of OpenAI (Meta yet did not subordinate nan offer, and OpenAI denied Musk’s bid).

While nan position of Meta’s woody pinch Midjourney stay unknown, nan startup’s CEO, David Holz, said successful a post connected X that his institution remains independent pinch nary investors; Midjourney is 1 of nan fewer starring AI exemplary developers that has ne'er taken connected extracurricular funding. At 1 point, Meta talked pinch Midjourney astir acquiring nan startup, according to Upstarts Media.

Midjourney was co-founded successful 2022 and quickly became a leader successful nan AI image procreation abstraction for its realistic, unsocial style. By 2023, nan startup was reportedly connected gait to make $200 million successful revenue. The startup sells subscriptions starting astatine $10 per month. It offers pricier tiers, which connection much AI image generations, that costs arsenic overmuch arsenic $120 per month. In June, the startup released its first AI video model, V1.

Meta’s business pinch Midjourney comes conscionable 2 months aft nan startup was sued by Disney and Universal, alleging that it trained AI image models connected copyrighted works. Several AI exemplary developers — including Meta — look akin allegations from copyright holders, however, caller tribunal cases pertaining to AI training information have sided pinch tech companies.