Ethical Stack.

Stable Video Diffusion

Locally operated downloadable video model; the former hosted API was deprecated, while self-hosting remains documented.

Score calculation

(4 + 3 + 8 + 6 + 1 + 8) ÷ 6 = 5.0

6 of six dimensions rated. Unrated dimensions are excluded from the average.

Full scoring method ↗
Setup details

Stable Video Diffusion: local access. Weights are available for self-hosting under Stability Community or Enterprise terms; hosted API was deprecated July 24, 2025. Ratings describe the stated product, company or configuration in each finding.

What fits your needs

Stability Stable Video Diffusion weights and reference code for local operation; the former Stability-hosted API was deprecated.

Tasks

Image-to-video model weights can be downloaded for self-hosted experimentation; current model card and code describe the supported setup.

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Billing and setup

Weights may be used under the Community or Enterprise license; local GPU compute, storage and engineering setup are separate costs. Hosted Stability API access was deprecated in 2025.

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Tradeoffs to expect

Local requirements

Requires compatible GPU, model weights and an inference environment; exact hardware minimum depends on variant and implementation and is not established in one universal spec.

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Training-data scope

The technical paper describes dataset curation, but it doesn’t confirm item-level permissions or creator opt-out for every training item.

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How to switch

Get started

Use Stability's access guide to identify the available model/code, review the matching license, and set up a compatible local runtime; assess any third-party host separately.

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Practical questions

Age and sensitive content

Stability’s AUP applies to self-hosted code/weights and hosted access: users must be 18 or the higher local age. It prohibits CSAM, NCII, illegal pornography and impersonation without consent.

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Consent and disclosure

AUP prohibits privacy-rights violations, non-consensual intimate imagery, impersonation without consent and pretending AI output was human-made. Local use does not add moderation by itself.

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Labels and reporting

C2PA standards are described for Stability hosted services; automatic provenance labeling of locally generated SVD files is not established. Stability provides a safety reporting channel.

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Current availability

Stability says its SVD API was deprecated July 24, 2025; it documents self-hosted weights and reference code for local use.

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Commercial use

The exact model version and use must match Stability’s Core Models and license terms; access to weights alone is not a commercial license for every use.

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Energy practices

4/10↑

Stable Video Diffusion is now self-hosted after Stability retired its API. Official scripts expose frame count, resolution, and sampling-step choices; no environmental measurement is provided.

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Stable Video Diffusion is now self-hosted after Stability retired its API. Official scripts expose frame count, resolution, and sampling-step choices; no environmental measurement is provided. The score describes documented measurement transparency and available controls, not environmental performance.

1 + 1 reporting + 0 electricity + 2 controls = 4/10. This grade covers documented practices and transparency; it does not measure the energy or emissions of a request.

Electricity and water depend on the user’s selected hardware, location, and power source. The cited implementation and model materials do not measure joules, emissions, water, or quality-adjusted inference for an actual video.

Reporting1/3
Stability’s deployment guide and official sampler define the local model/runtime boundary and disclose that the hosted API was retired; no quantitative environmental report is provided.
Electricity sourcing0/3
The only current route in Stability’s access guide is self-hosting; the user selects the host and power source, so no company/provider electricity sourcing applies.
Resource controls2/3
Official scripts expose model variant, output frame count, resolution, sampling steps, and decode chunk size. This is a multi-control setup that can bound workload and fit hardware, but no reduction in physical energy per completed video has been measured.

Water disclosure

Water reporting has not been assessed for this choice.

Training data

3/10↑

Stability’s paper describes staged image initialization, video pretraining and high-quality video fine-tuning, with dataset scale and processing details. It does not provide a complete source-license or creator-rights record.

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The technical paper is more informative about training stages than a general product page, but it doesn’t show permissions for the underlying web-video and inherited image data. A low score records that gap without alleging infringement.

1 + 2 source transparency + 0 permission + 0 creator controls = 3/10. This grades documented training-data safeguards, not a legal ruling.

The named source collection, applicable licenses, inheritance rights for the image backbone and creator controls are not established.

Source transparency2/3
The paper discloses multiple stages and meaningful dataset/training details, while leaving a complete source recipe unavailable.
Documented permission0/4
No affirmative dataset-level rights basis or compatibility review is documented in the paper.
Creator controls0/2
No relevant rights-holder exclusion or remedy appears in the reviewed training paper.
Data-rights rubric ↗

Your data & privacy

8/10↑

For a local offline setup, prompts and input images can remain on the operator’s machine; third-party hosting changes that boundary.

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This score applies only to local, offline use of the downloaded model. Network-connected plugins, cloud machines, and third-party interfaces are outside this configuration.

Openness

6/10↑

Stability provides downloadable weights and reference code for self-hosting under model-specific terms; hosted API access is discontinued.

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Local files and a paper provide some inspectability and control. License limits and missing full training-data details prevent a high openness rating.

Worker protections

1/10↑

Stability AI’s model card and license explain model access, deployment, and commercial licensing, but do not report worker pay, exposure protections, grievance routes, supplier coverage, or independent labor outcomes for training-data and moderation work.

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Stability AI’s model card and license explain model access, deployment, and commercial licensing, but do not report worker pay, exposure protections, grievance routes, supplier coverage, or independent labor outcomes for training-data and moderation work. Downloadable weights make downstream deployments distinct from the hosted service workforce.

1 + 0 pay & conditions + 0 worker voice & remedy + 0 evidence & follow-through = 1/10. This grades documented worker safeguards, not a measured rate of mistreatment.

Worker pay, exposure and health protections, paid versus volunteer roles, vendor/subcontractor coverage, grievance routes, and independent outcome checks are not established by the reviewed company license and a stability model card checked; neither is a workforce report, and open-weight downstream users are outside the hosted labor scope.

Pay & conditions0/3
No opened source reports worker pay, hours, exposure protections, contractor coverage, or worker-level outcomes for Stability AI. The reviewed material is limited to Company license and a Stability model card checked; neither is a workforce report, and open-weight downstream users are outside the hosted labor scope.; its silence is an information gap, not evidence of poor conditions.
Worker voice & remedy0/3
The reviewed material for Stability AI doesn’t confirm worker representation, grievance access, bargaining voice, or documented remedies. Public code contributions, customer controls, or creator rights do not demonstrate worker voice across employees and suppliers.
Evidence & follow-through0/3
No reviewed source provides an independent audit or corroborated worker-level outcomes for Stability AI’s relevant employees, contractors, and data-work suppliers. The available disclosures are company/project materials rather than independent labor verification.
Workers rubric ↗

Military ties

8/10Not established↑

Stability AI’s AUP bans illegal or regulated weapons development and multiple harmful surveillance practices, including for community-licensed self-hosted weights, but it does not ban military or intelligence use generally.

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The July 2025 AUP applies to Stability products, APIs, models and materials, explicitly including self-hosting under Non-Commercial Research, Community or Enterprise licenses and third-party hosting. It bans development/manufacture of illegal or regulated weapons, real-time public biometric identification for law enforcement, facial-recognition database expansion without consent and specified harmful profiling. It does not state a blanket military/intelligence ban; this does not necessarily govern independently redistributed permissive releases.

7 base + 1 safeguard adjustment = 8/10 (4 of 9 safeguard points; every 3 adds 1). No military relationship was established in the cited sources. This ranks above known defense ties without claiming a verified clean record.

Unpublished contracts, reseller/subcontractor activity, customer-configured use and enforcement outcomes remain unknown. Hosted AUPs do not necessarily apply to independent local deployments or permissively licensed copies.

Use restrictions2/4
Specific weapons and harmful-surveillance safeguards exceed lawful-use-only rules, but no general military/intelligence prohibition exists; published license scope applies to specified Stability-licensed use, not every downstream copy.
Enforcement & oversight1/3
Stability may suspend or terminate access for AUP violations; no independent military-specific review or enforcement outcomes are disclosed.
Relationship disclosure1/2
A public AUP names some prohibited uses, but no defense customer or relationship is disclosed in reviewed material.

The bounded official review found no named military/intelligence contract or operational use for this company/project. This evidence limit is not a clean bill of health; third-party model-provider relationships and customers’ independent deployments are separate.

Military rubric ↗

BDS targets

Not listed↑

Categorical check of the BNC campaign guide and No Tech campaign page; absence from these named-target pages is not BDS approval.

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No named target for this company was found in the two checked BNC sources as of 2026-10-24. This is a narrow list check, not BDS approval, and it does not capture unlisted relationships or partners.

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