Inference renames open‑science project after name clash with creator Aella
Inference CEO Sam Hogan announced an open‑science initiative called "Project AELLA", then renamed it to "Project OSSAS" roughly nine hours later after learning the name matched that of a well‑known creator and researcher who goes by Aella.
Hogan acknowledged the overlap on X (formerly Twitter), writing, "I didn't know who you were until today," and later adding, "Now I do! Love your work." He thanked people who flagged the issue and expressed appreciation to partners and the research community for their support.
The creator Aella — an OnlyFans creator, escort and Substack author who publishes data‑driven research on sex and relationships under the newsletter "Knowingless" — publicly reacted by reposting Hogan's renaming with the single response: "Lmfao." Earlier reporting noted that in 2020 Aella ranked among the top 0.04% of OnlyFans creators by monthly revenue and told Business Insider she earned up to $100,000 a month at that time. On the "Dating Talk" podcast she said she charges $4,000 for the first hour as an escort and $1,000 for each additional hour.
Hogan's exchange with Aella quickly turned cordial. He suggested potential collaboration — "Would be cool to do visualizations for some of your surveys" — and she replied, "I'd love that!" After seeing her work, Hogan said he didn't think the original name was unreasonable and asked whether he could revert to it; Aella gave permission but cautioned about searchability and suggested a minor tweak such as "AELLA‑B."
The episode touches on public perception and branding risks for startups, especially those operating in high‑profile fields like large‑language models and open science. Inference closed an $11.8 million seed round in October, according to PitchBook, led by Multicoin Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Hogan has described Inference on LinkedIn as "the world's largest GPU cluster for LLM inference."
Beyond the naming mix‑up, the exchange illustrates a light‑hearted, professional interaction between a startup CEO and an independent researcher/creator, and it may lead to a concrete collaboration around survey visualizations or other research tools.
Key timeline: Project announced as "Project AELLA" → public alerted CEO to name overlap → name changed to "Project OSSAS" (≈9 hours later) → friendly exchange and collaboration discussion between Hogan and Aella.
