According to Business Insider, Inference CEO Sam Hogan announced Project AELLA on Tuesday as an open-science initiative using LLMs to create structured research summaries. Just nine hours later, he renamed it Project OSSAS after discovering AELLA was also the name of a famous OnlyFans model and sex worker who made up to $100,000 monthly in 2020. The model, Aella, now focuses on data research through her Substack “Knowingless” and charges $4,000 for the first hour of escort services. Hogan responded on X saying “I didn’t know who you were until today,” while Aella simply reposted the renaming announcement with “Lmfao.” The exchange sparked a broader conversation that led to Hogan asking about potential collaboration on data visualizations for her surveys.
When brand names collide with reality
Here’s the thing about naming projects in 2024: you absolutely must Google the name first. Like, seriously. It’s wild that in an age where Aella has been prominent enough for VC legend Marc Andreessen to call her ideas “fantastic,” someone could miss this collision. But honestly, it speaks to how fragmented our information ecosystems have become. You can be massive in one circle and completely unknown in another, even when both circles overlap in tech.
From awkward to collaborative
What’s fascinating is how quickly this turned from potential PR disaster to genuine business opportunity. Within hours, Hogan was asking to collaborate on visualizations for her surveys, and she responded “I’d love that!” Then it got even more interesting – Hogan asked if they could change the name BACK to AELLA after seeing her work, saying “I don’t think naming this project AELLA is crazy at all.” She cautioned about “googleable issues” but suggested a modified version like AELLA-B. Basically, what started as embarrassment turned into mutual respect.
The evolution of online creators
Aella’s career trajectory is itself a story about how online creators are evolving. She went from top 0.04% of OnlyFans creators to running a serious research Substack that analyzes sex and relationships through data mining. On a recent podcast appearance, she said research is now her main income source. It’s a reminder that the lines between different types of online work are blurring dramatically. Someone can be a sex worker, data researcher, and tech influencer simultaneously.
What this means for tech naming
Look, this incident should terrify every startup founder out there. Inference just closed an $11.8 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital and Andreessen Horowitz – serious money for serious AI work. And yet they nearly launched with a name that would have created endless awkward conversations and SEO nightmares. The fact that Andreessen himself had previously engaged with Aella’s work makes this even more ironic. Maybe the real lesson is that comprehensive naming research needs to include… well, everything. Including adult content platforms that double as research hubs.
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