Runway vs Stability AI

Runway and Stability AI both develop generative AI models for image and video creation. They use transformers, diffusion models and latent diffusion as the core technologies for their models. They provide web services and APIs based on their models for business and private users. Both startups are involved in foundation AI research and collaborate with academic groups to publish scientific papers. Both operate globally.

But Runway (founded in 2018) is a US-based platform focused primarily on generating videos from text descriptions or video cues. It allows not only generation but also editing of videos - removing and adding objects, changing lighting and style. Runway is known for its ability to preserve character and scene stability between frames. The service is used by creative studios, film production companies and marketing departments.

Stability AI (2019) is a British company best known for its Stable Diffusion model that is used to generate images from text description. This model is open-source and distributed under flexible license to make AI more accessible. But because the model can be installed locally and has no restrictions, the company often faces copyright issues. Stability AI also develops models for video, audio, 3D and multimodal tasks.