The head of Stability AI leaves his post, saying it is futile to try to surpass a centralized AI system with even more centralized AI.

In a surprising turnaround, Emad Mostaque, the founder and CEO of Stability AI, a prominent artificial intelligence startup, has started a new chapter in his career. He recently announced his resignation from the leadership and board positions of the startup. This is the second example of drastic changes within AI startups this week.

Stability AI, backed by investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue Management, has yet to name a definitive successor for the CEO role. However, it announced that its COO, Shan Shan Wong, and its CTO, Christian Laforte, will serve as interim co-CEOs, according to a blog post.

The startup rationalized Mostaque’s departure by mentioning its increased interest in decentralized AI. In a series of posts on Anthropic.

Mostaque said his decision to resign was made with the intention of confronting this problem. He added that: “We should have more transparent and distributed governance in AI, because it is becoming more and more important. The concentration of power in AI is bad for all of us. I chose to resign to resolve this issue at Stability and elsewhere. »

Mostaque’s resignation, however, comes at a difficult time for Stability AI, which has been plagued by persistent infighting and talent drains. According to a Bloomberg article, the startup spent nearly $8 million per month in October 2023, failing to raise additional funds at a valuation of $4 billion.

Speaking about his plans, Mostaque said in an article on X last year that the technology is far from mature with advancements happening almost daily. He expressed amusement at AI companies’ strange focus on revenue, even though the technology is far from mature.

More recently, he said on Reddit: “This year we are doing well and ahead of schedule. Our goal is to be cash flow positive this year, and we believe we could get there sooner rather than later,” he wrote.

Finally, with Mostaque’s departure, Stability AI concludes a memorable week for the AI ​​sector. We learned earlier this week that Microsoft acquired Inflection AI, another AI startup that managed to raise around $1.5 billion. Several of Inflection AI’s founders and employees have also joined the ranks of Microsoft.