Nice generic method, will try next time

Absolutely right, there is the danger of bureaocratic monster given the amount of institutions involved. Lock 20 people in a room without distraction and you will probably move much faster.

I would add that chosing sth with a timeless brand such as math, stats or physics will keep it's value on your CV much better even at the point when you chose to do sth completely different

Good idea, but why is @hf.co not on the list of companies? That seems to be the most relevant European company around open source models?

The corresponding book about LLMs is an awesome didactic piece, reads like a novel (if you like the topic)

Nice, how does this compare to the various OpenClip variants with retrieval metrics listed here: github.com/mlfoundation...

They score much better than OpenAI clip. Tested some with pretty impressive results.

The trust in some continuous progress with a clear direction might be a byproduct of the christian belief in some judgement day or the waiting for messiah in judaism. Other cultures are arguable more comfortable with living in a steady state with ups and downs.