15ai

Thank you for the kind words. I know that HN is a tough crowd to please (I myself as well), so I hope that my next update will be well worth working for.

I'd argue that there is a rather massive difference between invoking Maxwell's equations to invent GPS and literally plagiarizing my work by using it to broker partnerships with celebrities and subsequently selling my work as NFTs. (Yes, this really happened - I'm not making this up.)

I'm afraid it's a necessity after all the times that my work has been appropriated by companies and TikTokers/YouTubers. Yes, I am fully aware that most people will not read it. But at least I tried.

Unfortunately, this is mostly run on the GPU. Believe it or not, AWS was by far the cheapest.

>Why do you keep it up and burning the money?

I can afford it.

>Can't you continue/do your research without a public website?

Yes, but the website has multiple purposes. It serves as a proof of concept of a platform that allows anyone to create content, even if they can't hire someone to voice their projects.

It also demonstrates the progress of my research in a far more engaging manner - by being able to use the actual model, you can discover things about it that even I wasn't aware of (such as getting characters to make gasping noises or moans by placing commas in between certain phonemes).

It also doesn't let me get away with picking and choosing the best results and showing off only the ones that work (which I believe is a big problem endemic in ML today - it's disingenuous and misleading). Being able to interact with the model with no filter allows the user to judge exactly how good the current work is at face value.

To be honest, I thought more people on HN would appreciate the little in-jokes that I added to the website (such as the Interjection copypasta and the multiple Rickrolls hidden throughout), but it's nice to see that some people do still share my lame attempt at humor :)

I have not been with MIT in years. I had a successful exit not too long after graduation, and I've been spending most of my earnings on this project.

As an undergrad, I was completely broke. I figured that keeping the project free to use was the best thing I could possibly do with my research as I continued to work on it.

It seems a bit overkill to do this instead of just waiting 10 seconds to click on the little green button, but I suppose this is a viable alternative.

You're completely correct, but I'm afraid this is more of a personal problem. I know I'll never be able to forgive myself if I figured out a solution to one of the more obvious problems with the model after I've already published it. I'd just be far more comfortable being happy with my own work before I release it to the wild. I know that this is selfish, and I apologize.

This is my fault. I do see how that part is worded ambiguously (I'll fix it later), but I have not been with MIT in years. Copy pasting what I've written in another comment:

To clarify: I have not been with MIT in years. I was paid the minimum hourly rate (roughly $14 an hour) to work on a related project during my undergraduate years, which eventually evolved into this project years down the road. (In fact, I had to pay for my own compute to get my work started - MIT never offered me any credits.)

And to address the philosophy behind the MIT license (also copy pasted from another comment):

For the past three years, I have done nothing but work on this project nonstop. I've been working on massive improvements (that some have pointed out in this thread) that I've been stuck on for the past several months, but I'm getting close to finishing that up.

I don't feel comfortable publishing or releasing anything until I know for a fact that I can make no further improvements. It's not out of corporate greed or anything like that - I'm just really paranoid about getting out the best work possible.

>But seriously: how did you get the domain `15.ai`?

I purchased it. It was definitely not cheap.

It is indeed several thousands of dollars a month. I can show you AWS invoices, if you're skeptical. Just send me an email and I'd be happy to show proof.

Twilight Sparkle's voice is indispensable in getting emotional contextualizers to work properly. The logo and profile picture is an homage to that fact.

It was a suggestion from a Twitter user, and I found it clever.

I'm sorry to tell you that I do, in fact, own my own model. I have not been with MIT in years.