Emad Mostaque

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Emad Mostaque
ইমাদ মোশতাক
BornApril 1983 (age 40–41)[1][2]
Jordan[3]
NationalityBangladeshi, British
EducationUniversity of Oxford
Occupation(s)Business executive
Mathematician
Hedge fund manager
Years active2005–present
Known forFunding AI projects
Notable workStable Diffusion

Mohammad Emad Mostaque (Bengali: মোহম্মদ ইমাদ মোশতাক) is a British-Bangladeshi business executive, mathematician, and former hedge fund manager.[4] He is the founder and was CEO of Stability AI until 23 March 2024,[5] one of the companies behind Stable Diffusion.[2][6][7]

Early life and education

Mostaque was born on April 1983 to a Bengali Muslim family in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He was taken to Dhaka, Bangladesh a month after his birth, and migrated with his family to the United Kingdom at the age of seven.[3] He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in mathematics and computer science from the University of Oxford.[8]

At age 19, Mostaque met his wife while on a student trip to the United States. He has been diagnosed with Asperger's and ADHD. In his twenties, he became interested in helping the Islamic world by creating online forums for Muslim communities and developing "Islamic AI" which would help guide people on their religious journey.[3]

Career

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.[4][9][10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led an effort to use big data to assist in governmental decision-making.[4][11] launched at Stanford University with the World Bank, UNESCO, World Health Organization and others.[12]

In 2019 Mostaque founded Symmitree, a startup that aimed to reduce the cost of technology for individuals living in poverty, which he worked on for a year.[2]

In late 2020, Mostaque founded Stability AI.[4][2] He initially self-funded the company, but later received investments from other companies.[4] 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 [13].Stability AI offered computational resources to support the project, and the model was officially released in August 2022 under the name Stable Diffusion.[14] Rombach, Blattmann, Esser and Lorenz subsequently joined Stability AI, leading the development of subsequent Stable Diffusion models.[15]

He advocates for an open-source approach to AI.[4] Some have supported this approach as this could lead to increased innovation and democratization of AI technology, while others have expressed concerns about the potential risks of releasing open-source AI models without adequate safeguards, citing possible regulatory backlash and negative societal consequences.[4]

In March 2023, he signed an open letter calling for "all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4".[16]

On March 23, 2024, Mostaque resigned from his position as CEO of Stability AI and from his seat on the company's Board of Directors. He stated he left the company to pursue decentralized AI initiatives, although several news rerports confirmed that Mostaque was driven out after months of pressure from disgruntled investors. [17] 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.[18] Another investor, Coatue, had been pushing for Mostaque to resign for months and launched an internal investigation into his management. Both venture capital firms resigned from their seats on Stability's board.[19] [20]

Stability appointed Shan Shan Wong, its former COO, and Christian Laforte, who had only recently risen to the level of CTO from his role as VP of research,[21] as interim co-CEOs following Mostaque's departure. In a statement, Mostaque expressed pride in leading Stability AI to significant growth during his tenure, including achieving hundreds of millions of downloads and developing top-tier generative AI models across various domains. Mostaque emphasized his belief in Stability AI's mission and the importance of maintaining open and decentralized AI technologies.[22]

Controversy and allegations

In June, 2023, a news report citing more than 30 sources, including investors and former Stability AI employees, stated that Mostaque had misled investors and the public about his educational background, a partnership with Amazon Web Services and the extent of his involvement in developing Stable Diffusion. The article also detailed Mostaque's unsubstantiated claims of partnerships with several NGOs, including the United Nations, and the government of Malawi.[23] Mostaque subsequently addressed these claims in his personal blog.[24]

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. The stake was valued at $150 million during a round of financing in October 2022, only five months after Hodes sold his shares.[25] The company responded in a statement saying Hodes was suffering from "a clear case of seller's remorse"[26] and Mostaque provided screenshots and his version of events on his personal Twitter account.[27] The suit has yet to go to trial.

On July 16, 2023, he declared that generative artificial intelligence "is a $1 trillion investment opportunity but will be 'biggest bubble of all time'".[28]

References

  1. ^ "MR MOHAMMAD EMAD MOSTAQUE". Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Cai, Kenrick. "Startup Behind AI Image Generator Stable Diffusion Is In Talks To Raise At A Valuation Up To $1 Billion". Forbes. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Emad Mostaque, unleashing AI". Retrieved 15 January 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Roose, Kevin (21 October 2022). "A Coming-Out Party for Generative A.I., Silicon Valley's New Craze". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
  5. ^ https://stability.ai/news/stabilityai-announcement
  6. ^ Choudhary, Lokesh (1 September 2022). "Stable Diffusion, a milestone?". Analytics India Magazine. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  7. ^ "With Stable Diffusion, you may never believe what you see online again – Ars Technica". arstechnica.com. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  8. ^ https://x.com/EMostaque/status/1682091613278072832
  9. ^ Mostaque, Emad. "Emad Mostaque: The Spreading Menace of Boko Haram".
  10. ^ "Mohammad Emad MOSTAQUE personal appointments – Find and update company information – GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  11. ^ Castellanos, Sara. "Data-Driven Website Aims to Help Global Agencies Make Decisions on Coronavirus Pandemic".
  12. ^ https://hai.stanford.edu/agenda-caiac
  13. ^ https://github.com/CompVis/latent-diffusion
  14. ^ https://github.com/CompVis/stable-diffusion/
  15. ^ https://stability.ai/news/stable-diffusion-3-research-paper
  16. ^ "Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter". Archived from the original on 28 March 2023. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  17. ^ "Chaotic departure of StabilityAI chief raises doubts over start-up's future". www.ft.com. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  18. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "How Stability AI's Founder Tanked His Billion-Dollar Startup". Forbes. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  19. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "How Stability AI's Founder Tanked His Billion-Dollar Startup". Forbes. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  20. ^ "Rachel Metz on LinkedIn: Stability AI Has Explored Sale as Investor Urges CEO to Resign". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  21. ^ "Stability AI quietly replaces CTO". Sifted. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  22. ^ "Stability AI Announcement". Stability AI. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  23. ^ Cai, Kenrick. "The AI Founder Taking Credit For Stable Diffusion's Success Has A History Of Exaggeration". Forbes. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  24. ^ https://emad.posthaven.com/on-setting-the-record-straight
  25. ^ "Stability AI cofounder sues CEO Mostaque and company over 'brazenly deceitful' share sale". Sifted. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  26. ^ "Stability AI CEO Says AI Expert Merely Has 'Seller's Remorse' - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  27. ^ https://x.com/EMostaque/status/1680774535342358528
  28. ^ "A.I. is a $1 trillion investment opportunity but will be 'biggest bubble of all time,' CEO predicts". CNBC`date=July 17, 2023.
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