. Mostaque recently dined with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; reclusive Google cofounder Sergey Brin made a rare public appearance at Stability’s ritzy launch party in San Francisco last October.
In responding to a detailed list of questions, Mostaque shared a statement saying that Stability had not historically prioritized the “systems and processes” underpinning the fast-growing startup. “We recognize our flaws, and we are working to improve and resolve these issues in an effective and compassionate manner,” he wrote.
To get there, Mostaque began telling investors that Stability was assembling one of the world’s 10 biggest supercomputers. He branded himself to AI researchers as a beneficent ally, magnanimously willing to provide funding and lend use of Stability’s supercomputer to grassroots AI builders fighting the good fight against goliaths like Google and OpenAI.
Got a tip about a story? Reach out to the authors, Kenrick Cai at kcai@forbes.com or kenrick.cai@protonmail.com, or Iain Martin at iain.martin@forbes.com. “What he is good at is taking other people’s work and putting his name on it, or doing stuff that you can’t check if it’s true,” one former employee said of Mostaque. In a statement, Bishara said Mostaque is “quick to praise and attribute the work of collaborators” and “categorically denies these spurious claims and characterizations.”
Bishara said that Stability has made “repeated public statements” crediting Ludwig Maximilian University and Runway on its website and on the Stable Diffusion’s. Nevertheless, the original developers feel Mostaque misled the public in key communications. “One thing you learned from that is if you have a company with a huge press department, you can rebrand history in your interest,” Ommer said.