A rocky past haunts the mysterious company behind the Lensa AI photo app

Lensa, an AI photo app developed by Prisma Labs, saw its popularity skyrocket with the introduction in November of its "Magic Avatar" feature that turned selfies into images that strikingly resembled professional digital art. (Catie Dull/NPR)

A Belarussian millionaire living in Cyprus. A dinner with the CEO of Snap. A six-figure patent troll case.

They are all part of the history of Prisma Labs, a largely obscure artificial intelligence startup that spent years under the radar until November, when the company introduced "Magic Avatars."