Emad Mostaque

Reports indicate that Mostaque had not completed the formal process required to obtain the ceremonial Oxford MA, which does not involve additional coursework.

[2] Mostaque began his career as a hedge fund manager who was involved in crude oil trading and providing advice to governments on Middle East affairs and Islamic extremism.

[3] Stability AI's well-known AI image generator, Stable Diffusion, originated from a project called Latent Diffusion, developed by researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and Heidelberg University, led by Robin Rombach and Andreas Blattmann, assisted by Patrick Esser and Dominik Lorenz under their PhD advisor Björn Ommer.

[21] Rombach, Blattmann and Lorenz resigned in March 2024, as part of a "mass exodus of executives" that coincided with reported shinking cash reserves as Stability AI struggled to raise funds.

[23] He stated he left the company to pursue decentralized AI initiatives, although several news reports confirmed that Mostaque was driven out after months of pressure from disgruntled investors.

[24] In an October 2023 letter to Stability's board, investor Lightspeed Venture Partners said Mostaque's mismanagement had "severely undermined" its confidence in him and urged the company to search for a buyer.

The article also detailed Mostaque's unsubstantiated claims of partnerships with several NGOs, including the United Nations, and the government of Malawi.

[30] In the blog post, Mostaque said he partnered with these organizations in his work with the Collective and Augmented Intelligence Against COVID-19 (CAIAC), a project he founded with AI researcher Cyrus Hodes that failed to launch.

[34] On July 13, 2023, Stability AI co-founder Cyrus Hodes filed a civil lawsuit against Mostaque, claiming he was defrauded into selling his 15% stake in the company for $100.

[35] The company responded in a statement saying Hodes was suffering from "a clear case of seller's remorse"[36] and Mostaque provided screenshots and his version of events on his personal Twitter account.

[43] Additionally, former employees alleged that her management style was overly aggressive, with some staff reporting instances of being scolded to the point of tears.