2023-11-16 - Istanbul, Turkey

Lilypad Network takes the next step towards democratizing artificial intelligence by launching Lilypad AI Studio, a website and platform that provides (currently) free and open access to state-of-the-art generative models. With the launch of the public alpha website, any user can visit https://app.lilypad.tech/ and use a pre-built portfolio of models to generate content, with new models being added every day. Users can also add their own node to the decentralized compute network or contribute their own model for others to run.

Generative AI has captured the public's imagination in recent months. Systems like DALL-E 2, Stable Diffusion, and GPT-4 showcase the tremendous potential of these technologies. However, access to them remains limited, both for training on new data and for usage. Leveraging these models requires expensive GPUs and cloud compute resources. As a result, the benefits accrue mainly to large tech firms and governments.

Announcing Lilypad AI Studio

Lilypad Network aims to change this status quo with the launch of Lilypad AI Studio - a website and platform that makes advanced AI freely accessible to all. Users can access leading generative models such as Stable Diffusion XL (SDXL) and Mistral-7B-Instruct through an intuitive web interface. The site’s initial example allows for generating images through simple prompts, with many more models coming soon. There's no need to install software or provision infrastructure.

Behind the scenes, Lilypad AI Studio taps into the Lilypad Network's decentralized compute fabric. As an open peer-to-peer network, any user or compute provider can add their machines to contribute resources. Over time, this will create a vast pool of GPUs and other hardware globally. The Lilypad Network blockchain handles routing jobs to available resources automatically, and will allow for advanced features like proximity and cost in the near future.

This architecture unlocks several advantages. Firstly, it drastically lowers the barrier to leveraging AI, as users do not have to provision expensive hardware and understand complex software stacks that are challenging to manage and debug. Secondly, it provides censorship resistance by spreading inference capacity across many independent nodes. Finally, it enables permissionless innovation, as anyone can contribute a model to the catalog and accrue the collective power of models created by the community.

Announcing Baklava Calibration Net Beta Test Program

Alongside the AI Studio launch, Lilypad is unveiling its Baklava Calibration Network.

The Baklava testnet runs on the Filecoin Calibration network, as an InterPlanetary Consensus (IPC) subnet with faster blocktimes, cheaper transactions, and more customizations. Any node provider can join the Baklava Calibration Network to add their compute resources to the decentralized compute network, just follow the steps here to add your CPUs, GPUs, or other hardware to start receiving compute jobs. To be eligible for potential rewards, you’ll also need to join the official beta testing group by signing up at bit.ly/join-lilypad-calib-net.

"Generative AI holds tremendous potential for creativity, education, science and more," said Lilypad CEO Ally Haire. "But to realize that potential, these technologies need to be freely accessible. Lilypad AI Studio aims to put these capabilities directly into the hands of the people, not just large corporations."

With the launch of Lilypad AI Studio, the project moves one step closer to its vision of an open computing infrastructure for enabling the next generation of AI innovation. Try generating content today at app.lilypad.tech and learn more about joining the network. Together, we can build a future where everyone benefits from advances in open infrastructure technology.