Licensing Questions Plague Stability AI as SD3 Image Generator Gets Banned from CivitAI

Stability AI's release of its latest major model, Stable Diffusion 3 (SD3), is facing significant backlash from the AI community due to its restrictive licensing terms, a growing controversy that prompted a major Stable Diffusion community hub to ban SD3-related work on Monday.

SD3 users are concerned about the potential implications of the SD3 license terms on future model development and improvement, which traditionally rely on open-source community contributions and involvement. Stability AI now separates out a consumer or a “Creator License” that is available only to developers with less than $1 million in annual revenue, less than $1 million in institutional funding, and less than 1 million monthly active users.

The license also limits the number of images generated to 6,000 per month. Anyone who needs to exceed those limits must pay for an Enterprise License.