Mohammad Emad Mostaque is an entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Stability AI, which is one of the companies behind Stable Diffusion. Mostaque was born in Jordan but grew up in Bangladesh and the United Kingdom, where he later received his master's degree in mathematics and computer science from Oxford University in 2005. He spent 13 years working at various hedge funds in the United Kingdom before founding Symmitree, a startup that aimed to reduce the cost of technology for people living in poverty.
Mostaque founded Stability AI in late 2020, and the company has received funding from Mostaque himself as well as other investment companies like Eros Investments. Stability AI spent $600,000 of its initial $10 million funding to train Stable Diffusion, and the company recently announced a $100 million seed round with a valuation of $1 billion.
Mostaque has been diagnosed with Asperger's and ADHD and has a passion for using technology to help the Islamic world. He has been involved in creating online forums for Muslim communities and developing "Islamic AI" to help guide people on their religious journey. In March 2023, he signed an open letter calling for a pause in the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, urging all AI labs to take a break for at least six months.
