[Alvion_Bleeds]

Connor Leahy, who I think is a sort of BDFL figure for ElutherAI, mentioned in a Slatestarcodex online meetup I attended that Google donated millions of dollars worth of preemptable TPU credits to the project. There is a video of the meetup on YouTube somewhere. Struck me as a really smart kid with a lot of passion.

[chillee]

Haha Connor (although one of the main participants) definitely isn't a BDFL - we don't have any BDFLs :)

We don't really have much of a hierarchy at all - it's mostly just a collection of researchers of widely varying backgrounds all interested in ML research.

[stellaathena]

I'm not sure what a BDFL figure is, but Google does not give us millions of dollars. We are a part of TFRC, a program where researchers and non-profits can borrow TPUs when they're not being used. You could say that we are indirectly funded as a result, but it's nowhere near millions of dollars and it doesn't reflect any kind of special relationship with Google.

[o-__-o]

Benevolent dictator for life

[leogao]

EleutherAI has a very flat hierarchy; we do not have any BDFL-like figure.