Emad Mostaq, founder and former CEO of Stability AI, said: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
StabilityAI chief executive Emad Mostaq has resigned from the British artificial intelligence startup. The move comes after conflicts with investors and a wave of departures of senior staff.
Chief Operating Officer Xiang Xiang Wong and Chief Technology Officer Christian Laforte will serve as interim co-CEOs, the company said in a blog post late Friday. Mr. Mostak will also leave the company’s board of directors.
in Post to XMostak wrote that he has decided to resign and will focus on solving the problem of concentration of power in AI.
Stable is best known for Stable Diffusion, the popular image generation tool that helped start the tech industry’s current AI craze. The startup has also expanded into text and video generation AI capabilities. Stability was an early hit among investors, and in 2022 he was valued at $1 billion.
More recently, the startup hit a roadblock. Bloomberg reported that Stability was considering a sale as investors put pressure on management over its financial health. The startup became an acquisition target in the fall and was in early-stage deal talks with several companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Regarding stability, we also saw significantly higher levels of turnover last year.
Mostaque, a huge figure in the AI world, co-founded the startup in 2019 after holding various positions at hedge funds and crypto projects. In the years that followed, he stirred up great controversy as his CEO. Cyrus Hodes, another co-founder, sued Mostak and Stability in 2023. Hodes claimed he was tricked into selling his stake in the startup months before a major funding round. Mostak and the company disputed the allegations.
The CEO also drew criticism for talking about the company’s and his own performance in ways that could stretch his beliefs, sometimes making exaggerated statements. For example, multiple people interviewed by Bloomberg News last year said the CEO once worked as a secret agent for the British government.
Asked to comment on his resignation via text message, Mostak joked, “I’m back to being a secret agent,” adding a silence emoji.
Tensions between Stability AI and some of its biggest investors escalated last year, to the point where Cotu Management demanded Mostak’s resignation in a letter to management, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, several senior staff members have continued to leave the company in recent months.
Stability AI is a well-known name in the world of generative AI, a technology that has captivated audiences with its ability to create images and text based on prompts of just a few words. Stable Diffusion is popular for its photorealistic images and is a competitor to OpenAI’s Dall-E image tool.
But while these products have grown in popularity, they have also caused some unrest, especially as the 2024 election season heats up. Convincing computer-generated images showing everything from Pope Francis in a down jacket to former President Donald Trump running from FBI agents are raising concerns about the role of AI in the deepfake epidemic.
