OpenAI boss: RAM in client PCs a “terrible” idea
OpenAI boss Sam Altman thinks the concept of someone using memory in their own PC is “terrible.” The AI manager believes that the scarce RAM resource should be used in data centers where it can be fully utilized.
Altman: Individually used PCs are running out of RAM
For Sam Altman, the CEO of the AI provider OpenAI, who is behind the chatbot ChatGPT, among other things, the use of RAM in client PCs is a problem because, in his opinion, it causes the already scarce RAM to become even rarer. The “invisible hand” of the market is failing in this regard, he complained. In a conversation with the YouTube channel Cheeky Pint Altman said that from the perspective of the global distribution of the memory resource, having everyone have some of the world’s limited amount of DRAM sitting on their own PC would be “pretty terrible” because the memory would then only be used “maybe five percent of the time.”
Instead, it makes more sense for storage in the cloud to be used to its maximum, since we are operating in an environment with very limited availability, Altman argued. But for some reason people intuitively choose the opposite, he continued. Altman’s view can be seen as highly one-sided, but one must take the context into account. The OpenAI boss previously said that there are many users who want to run AI models locally and therefore believe that the problem will be solved by open source models that run locally.
Some people are therefore convinced that “we don’t need all that stuff in the data centers.” As the head of one of the largest AI providers, Altman apparently has little interest in individual users using their own PC. The statements also leave out the fact that even the cheapest client systems cannot function without RAM, even if they are just simple laptops, thin clients or smartphones and tablets.
