However, NightCafe faces challenges related to copyright concerns and content moderation. The company does not train its own AI and moderates fine-tuning to avoid legal issues. Users retain the copyright for their AI-generated works, but they are responsible for obtaining permission to use any third-party branding, logos, or trademarks. NightCafe also has policies around political content and deepfakes, and it employs a small team of moderators to enforce its community standards. Despite potential legal and regulatory challenges, Elle Russell believes NightCafe has a sustainable business model and plans to continue focusing on building a community around AI art.
Key takeaways:
- NightCafe is an Australia-based company that offers a suite of AI-powered art-creating tools. It has over 25 million users who have created nearly a billion images with its tools.
- The company got its second big break in mid-2021 when OpenAI announced DALL-E. NightCafe quickly worked to get one of the more popular DALL-E alternatives, VQGAN+CLIP, on its platform, which led to a significant increase in popularity and revenue.
- NightCafe is free to use, but only up to a certain number of images. Packs of image-generation credits can be purchased à la cart, and select features are gated behind a subscription. The company is reportedly generating approximately $2 million a year in profit after expenses.
- NightCafe is attempting to steer clear of the legal stand-off that’s ensnared many of the AI vendors whose models it aggregates by not training its own AI and moderating fine-tuning. However, it may face legal challenges if a court rules that the models it uses are essentially plagiarism machines.