> Rio de Janeiro's city government model...

Because... lack of a good open weight LLM is a pressing need high on the municipal priorities list for Rio de Janeiro citizens?

Should governments not take actions that later benefit the academic, scientific, and economic welfare of their constituents?

Or is it that it’s a city doing this?

Now Brazil does know how to boondoggle its finances for a prestigious cause with little return (e.g. the Olympics games) but this is far smaller a cost, more akin to a city setting up a tech accelerator or making a media campaign about how important STEM is.

It's the municipal IT company, and the dude that did this is a volunteer.