Emad Mostak, Founder and CEO, Stability AI
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Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque is stepping down as CEO of the generative AI startup. forbes Have learned.
Mr. Mostak revealed his plans privately to industry insiders earlier this week at the Abundance 360 conference in Los Angeles, where he was a speaker, according to three people with whom Mr. Mostak spoke directly. Stability, known for its image generation tool Stable Diffusion, has not yet responded to a request for comment.
After publication, stability is press release Mostak’s resignation was confirmed. The company announced that Chief Operating Officer Shan Shan Wong and Chief Technology Officer Christian Laforte have been appointed interim co-CEOs, and the board is searching for a new permanent CEO. Mr. Mostake also relinquished his board seat. The press release states that he will pursue “decentralized AI” in the future, but details were not disclosed.
Mr. Mostake’s decision to step down as CEO of the company he founded comes after an explosion of employee dissatisfaction and the company’s most popular product, Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image generator, was announced this month. The decision comes after the company reached a new peak with the retirement of the key researchers behind it. That same week, Tyler Saltzman, head of strategic partnerships, also resigned. These suggestions were made by 5 people familiar with the matter. forbes He said his decision was prompted by frustration with Stability’s failed commercialization efforts. They said he plans to start his own company, tentatively named Edge. Saltsman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Multiple sources suggested forbes Mr. Mostak may be looking to help Mr. Saltzman with his Edge business after he steps down as Stability’s CEO, he said. Two people who spoke with Mostak at the conference said he also wants to work on AI-related initiatives in healthcare.
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Since the fall, management and Stability’s investors, including venture capital firms Cotu and Lightspeed Venture Partners, have asked Mostak to relinquish his role as CEO, according to four people familiar with the matter. ing. A number of executives have since left the company, including Chief Human Resources Officer Ozden Onder, General Counsel Adam Avrunin, and Vice President of Applied Machine Learning Joe Pena. (Executives could not be reached for comment)
Mr. Mostaque emerged as a key figure in the field of artificial intelligence just at the time when hype in the field was growing thanks to the viral success of Stable Diffusion. However, his image has been tarnished by accusations of exaggeration and exaggeration about his academic background, his involvement with Stability AI in the development of Stable Diffusion, his industry capabilities, etc. forbes It was first reported last year. Still, Mostaque was able to raise more than $100 million for Stability AI at a $1 billion valuation.
But within a year, Stability quickly ran out of money. As of October 2023, it was spending about $8 million a month, Bloomberg previously reported. report.Attempts to raise additional funds at a $4 billion valuation have largely failed, according to people familiar with the matter. forbes last year.
Despite this, Mostak put up a brave face in front of the public. “Our goal is to be cash flow positive this year,” he wrote on Reddit in February. And at the press conference, he described his plans to resign as the culmination of a successful mission, according to one of the people briefed on the matter.
