Stability AI Co-Founder Sued CEO for 10 Percent of the Company
A doctor claiming to be a co-founder of Stability AI, one of the hottest startups in the artificial intelligence space, sued the company last week, claiming that he was cut out of the company and demanding that it fulfill its promise of 10 percent ownership equity.
The lawsuit was filed on May 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk division, and was dismissed by the plaintiff on the same day.
Tayab Waseem, a computational biologist specializing in AI uses for medicine and policy, filed a complaint against Stability AI and its co-founder and CEO Mohammad Emad Mostaque on May 18. Waseem claimed that from July 2020 through July 2021, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Stability AI, and was presented to investors as a member of the foundering team. He claimed that Stability AI promised him 10 percent common stock in the company, to be vested immediately, in lieu of a paycheck.
As of March, Stability AI is reportedly seeking to raise funds at a valuation of about $4 billion, and in 2022, it raised a seed round of $1 billion. Stability AI created Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image deep learning model that’s been accused of stealing artist’s work to create AI-generated images. Getty Images sued Mostaque and Stability AI earlier this year, claiming “brazen infringement of Getty Images’ intellectual property on a staggering scale.” That lawsuit is ongoing.
