As I have said many, many times before, Conjecture is not a deep shift in my beliefs about open sourcing, as it is not, and has never been, the position of EleutherAI (at least while I was head) that everything should be released in all scenarios, but rather that some specific things (such as LLMs of the size and strength we release) should be released in some specific situations for some specific reasons. EleutherAI would not, and has not, released models or capabilities that would push the capabilities frontier (and while I am no longer in charge, I strongly expect that legacy to continue), and there are a number of things we did discover that we decided to delay or not release at all for precisely such infohazard reasons. Conjecture of course is even stricter and has opsec that wouldn’t be possible at a volunteer driven open source community.
Additionally, Carper is not part of EleutherAI and should be considered genealogically descendant but independent of EAI.
Thank you for taking the time to share your insights. I’ve updated the post to incorporate your comment. I removed the phrase suggesting a change in beliefs between EleutherAI and Conjecture, and added a paragraph that clarifies EleutherAI’s approach to open sourcing. I also made sure to clearly state that CarperAI is a spinoff of EleutherAI but operates independently.
I appreciate your feedback, and I hope these changes better represent EleutherAI’s position.
As I have said many, many times before, Conjecture is not a deep shift in my beliefs about open sourcing, as it is not, and has never been, the position of EleutherAI (at least while I was head) that everything should be released in all scenarios, but rather that some specific things (such as LLMs of the size and strength we release) should be released in some specific situations for some specific reasons. EleutherAI would not, and has not, released models or capabilities that would push the capabilities frontier (and while I am no longer in charge, I strongly expect that legacy to continue), and there are a number of things we did discover that we decided to delay or not release at all for precisely such infohazard reasons. Conjecture of course is even stricter and has opsec that wouldn’t be possible at a volunteer driven open source community.
Additionally, Carper is not part of EleutherAI and should be considered genealogically descendant but independent of EAI.
Hi Connor,
Thank you for taking the time to share your insights. I’ve updated the post to incorporate your comment. I removed the phrase suggesting a change in beliefs between EleutherAI and Conjecture, and added a paragraph that clarifies EleutherAI’s approach to open sourcing. I also made sure to clearly state that CarperAI is a spinoff of EleutherAI but operates independently.
I appreciate your feedback, and I hope these changes better represent EleutherAI’s position.
Thanks!