Emad Mostaque: The Unstable Genius Behind Stable Diffusion

I've been following this Emad character for a while now, and let me tell you - the man's a walking contradiction. Born with Asperger's and ADHD into a Bangladeshi Muslim family, this self-proclaimed AI visionary has built an empire on other people's work while somehow convincing everyone he's a revolutionary.

Imagine being so irritable as a kid that your dad puts you through "British Accent Training" just to channel your energy somewhere useful. Hilarious! But clearly it worked - that posh accent helped him smooth-talk his way into Oxford and eventually into the wallets of some serious investors.

What strikes me most about Emad is how he constantly reinvents his own narrative. One minute he's a hedge fund manager making millions shorting crypto, the next he's a devoted father using AI to cure his autistic son (a story that feels conveniently crafted to give his AI pursuits a noble origin).

The Stable Diffusion saga is particularly telling. This guy basically swooped in with some computing power, slapped his company's name on work done by Professor Björn Ommer's team, and then acted like he'd invented the wheel. The poor German professor was on vacation when his work got co-opted! Talk about getting played.

"What I learned from this lesson is that if your company has a strong news department, you can change the facts and reshape history at will," Ommer said. Damn right.

Despite falsified credentials, unpaid wages to interns, alleged embezzlement, and copyright lawsuits, Emad keeps floating above it all like some untouchable AI messiah. The crypto crowd loves him, traditional VCs throw money at him, and he's dining with Jeff Bezos while his company burns through cash.

Now that he's resigned from Stability AI (after his investors basically forced him out), he's predictably pivoting to Web3 with his "SchellingAI" project. Typical. Promise coins, miss deadlines, repeat. There's not even a website yet!

I can't decide if Emad is a brilliant opportunist or just a charismatic mess who's failed upward through sheer audacity. Maybe it's both. Either way, the industry keeps giving him chances while the actual innovators get footnoted in his story.

Let's see if his Web3 venture actually delivers anything beyond empty promises. I'm not holding my breath.