[MartianSquirrel]

It was indeed a weird model, I think the tech scene here always looked at eAI like some type of outcast, leaving them alone.

But it drew attention to the AI scene, universities received massive funding in AI which is fantastic, startups grew around it, VCs started investing more in MTL(not only because of them, but it did play a role), FAANGS expanded their offices and openned AI labs downtown and in the mile-end.

I was not a fan, but the publicity they received has definetly been good for the scene.