Maybe it's malware, I haven't checked, but that seems like a pretty typical trajectory to me. I posted a project on HN and got a graph of roughly the same shape (though a much more modest magnitude). https://www.star-history.com/#maxbondabe/attempt&type=date&l...

Star counts go vertical when you launch your project and it's warmly received. ~850 stars in 11 days for an AI project doesn't seem at all crazy to me.

The README also contains a mild inducement to star the repo.

> Star Us on GitHub and Get Exclusive Day 1 Badge for Your Networks

Seems sufficient to explain any inauthentic behavior. Growth hacking tactics are certainly not typical of open source projects, but how that should factor into your judgment of this project's trustworthiness, I can't say. Caveat emptor.

Hey, I still remember October 9th so well — that was the day we first went public with our project! I was so excited telling all my friends about it on social media. We'd been working towards this for months, getting everything ready.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it is malware. Is it not possible that they just paid for some kind of PR or fake stars?

Just playing devils advocate as I think your accusation isn’t based on much merit and is quite a big claim to make.