A new AI start-up with ambitious goals has been established in Freiburg, Germany. Black Forest Labs, founded by former developers of the open-source image generator Stable Diffusion, aims to revolutionize the world of generative AI.
The team behind Black Forest Labs consists of experienced AI researchers and developers who previously worked at Stability.ai on groundbreaking projects such as Stable Diffusion and other generative AI models. Their expertise includes innovations like VQGAN, Latent Diffusion, and Stable Video Diffusion.
In an impressive seed funding round, Black Forest Labs raised $31 million. This round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most well-known venture capital firms. Other prominent angel investors, including Brendan Iribe and Michael Ovitz, as well as General Catalyst and MätchVC, also participated.
With the introduction of the Flux.1 suite, Black Forest Labs is setting new benchmarks in text-to-image synthesis. These models offer exceptional image detail, precise prompt adherence, and a wide variety of styles. Flux.1 supports different aspect ratios and resolutions, standing out for its versatility. According to Black Forest Labs, the models Flux.1 [pro] and Flux.1 [dev] surpass leading competitors like Midjourney v6.0 and DALL-E 3 (HD) in many aspects. Notably, Flux.1 [fast] is described as the most advanced model in its class, enabling quick and efficient image synthesis.
Black Forest Labs offers Flux.1 in three different variants: Flux.1 [pro], designed for commercial applications and available through platforms like Replicate and fal.ai; Flux.1 [dev], for non-commercial use, ideal for research and development projects; and Flux.1 [fast], for personal use and local development, licensed under Apache 2.0 and freely accessible.
The next major step for Black Forest Labs is developing text-to-video models. These new models aim to enable high-resolution video creation with unprecedented speed and precision. To achieve this goal, the company is seeking talented AI and backend engineers to expand its team. Black Forest Labs is at the forefront of generative AI development and is committed to creating innovative technologies that will fundamentally change the way we create images and videos.
