Not focusing on LLMs isn't a major sin imo, if I was donating money to an institute I'd rather they were doing something unique than churning out another also-r

Not focusing on LLMs isn't a major sin imo, if I was donating money to an institute I'd rather they were doing something unique than churning out another also-ran llm. Researchers have diverse interests and expertise, and the field has way more depth than the current thing, it's not obviously bad they were working on other stuff. That said, if the examples he gives of what they were working on are representative, it implies they are spending their time chasing trends instead of doing fundamental research and chased the wrong ones. I'd suspect they re doing more than what was implied though.