In December 2022, someone was looking for Emad Mostaque. The founder and CEO of Stability AI, one of the hottest startups in the nascent generative AI field, could not be found. Even Mostaque’s wife, Zehra Qureshi, was not sure. She texted an employee, worried about Mostaque and noting that he’d left home in his pajamas. Mostaque would soon reappear, brushing it off. But the bizarre episode hinted at a deeper dynamic destabilizing the AI unicorn. When Mostaque was gone, employees had to scramble...