Sam Altman:
A lot of people want local inference, and somehow they assume that the problem is solved now because we have open-source models, we’re going to be able to run them on our computers, and so we’re not going to need all the stuff in the data center.
But from a global allocation perspective, actually it’s quite terrible to have everybody, like, have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used five percent of the time.
Like you want maximum utilisation in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment,
And somehow many people’s intuition is the opposite of that
TL;DR Guy selling product: “Here’s why owning your own product instead of renting it from me is a terrible idea”
A lot of people want to be billionaires, and somehow they assume the problem is solved because we have unfettered predatory late stage capitalism and oligarchy in America, we’re going to be able to amass as much money as we want in our bank accounts, and so we’re all going to be rich without oversight, accountability or government interference.
But from a global allocation perspective, actually it’s quite terrible to have everybody, like, have a bunch of the world’s wealth sitting in a few private bank accounts and being used .05% of the time.
Like you want maximum circulation of currency if you’re trying to reduce inequality in this artificial scarcity environment,
And somehow, Americans’ intuitions are the opposite of that.
FTFY Sam.
This is genuinely a fantastic response that is also absolutely correct in its premise
Except that most of their “money” is parts of the company, it “works”. It only gets dangerous, if the economy is bad and people keep their (real) money, accelerating it further.
I was just going to leave it at “funny, I’d say the same thing about billionaires,” but this is more through.
Funny because it’s true
Fighting so hard not to make an edit about raping sisters, but that might be too degenerate for me
letting sam altman (or billionaires for that matter) have all the money from our work is a poor allocation of resources.
Sam Altman is a terrible utilization of scarce resources.
I want to use ram for things unrelated to AI you fucking prick.
It wasn’t even scarce before them.
Sam Altman is
aterribleutilization of scarce resources.
And who made those resources scarce, Sam? WHO MADE THEM SCARCE???
also screw you for trying to make the answer to ‘How should those resources be allocated?’ be ‘In the way that best enriches me personally’.
It kind of blows my mind how our society is set up to give the most power to the worst people.
I think it has to be with the way all the media channels ( controlled by the rich in power) essential brainwash people into not acting. Money and capitalism slowly corrupted the process of democracy and will see after Nov 3 if there is away to hold the rich in check.
And there it is.
“We made components scarce, so you have no choice but to use our cloud services where we control everything and you rent the privilege from us.”
Literally called it. Fuck these assholes with everything rusty.
Cory Doctorow predicted this fifteen years ago, although in a different context (transcript here).
That’s insanely ironic coming from him. Meanwhile the crazy amount of waste that these companies are producing buying all the GPUs to create artificial scarcity. They are terrified of people being able to run their own local LLMs because it completely destroyed their entire business model, they will never be profitable.
This fucking guy needs to suck a tailpipe
new title:
“Man whose company lost $20b in previous year explains how to allocate resources.”
A lot of people want local inference, and somehow they assume that the problem is solved now because we have open-source models, we’re going to be able to run them on our computers, and so we’re not going to need all the stuff in the data center.
We don’t need them even without local inference. There was already more than enough total global compute for the most valuable use cases of LLMs (research, development, admin). The datacenter build-up is almost entirely fueled by utterly unrealistic expectations of future capabilities. Before and now the case for local inference is a matter of access, not capacity.
But from a global allocation perspective, actually it’s quite terrible to have everybody, like, have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used five percent of the time.
Utilitarianism like this is a disease. By the same logic, it’s inefficient that we allow other species of animals to exist and consume usable energy. Hell, why stop at other species? It’s inefficient to allow humans to exist - let’s kill all humans!
Now, I know that’s not what he said, the point was to show that when someone uses utilitarianism as a serious argument, they are no longer worth listening to.
Like you want maximum utilisation in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment,
The supply is only constrained because you keep hoarding more than you need. Maybe it’s time for some communization? So communities where data centers are built get most if not all of the profits from it?
It’s inefficient to allow humans to exist - let’s kill all humans!
That’s already where his mind is at: https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/02/23/altman-you-think-ai-is-wasted-energy-try-raising-a-human/4181781
Well the less humans that are kept happy by having enough ram to do stuff the more unhappy humans looking for someone to blame there are… But yeah what’s the point in anything if there’s nobody there?
At this point - especially with this commentary - the datacenter build-up seems like market manipulation. Like how hyper-scaling keeps competition scarce.
No… he actually is right. A local machine will sit idle most if the time.
A data center can balance loads globally.
In terms of resources… data centers ARE cheaper.
However … there are other reasons to use local interference that might be more important than added cost
Totally agree. It’s really about wealth distribution and who controls the resources. Altman is just trying to steer the conversation toward efficiency instead.
Well yes, or data security or whatever.
But on a purely costs level such big data centers are cheaper… especially since they certainly getting better discounts than anyone else.
No, his analogy is poor for many reasons. One is that people using local models are likely using that computer for other things as well, it is a resource that does many things unlike their slop farms. Also, DRAM wasn’t a “scarce resource” until they devoured the industry with their AI ponzi scheme.
Only very few people have enough processing power to run a proper model.
You can aggregate spare LLM capacity in a collaborative p2p fashion. But my reasons would be to use spare PV capacity to run an uncensored model during daytime with full privacy.
Maybe but nothing will beat a dedicated data center in terms of costs.
Starting with purchasing prices etc etc.
And what happens if a rogue Ai hits a p2p network might be a funny read a few centuries later…
nothing will beat a dedicated data center in terms of costs.
If it was properly built.
That doesn’t include the garbage data centers being built currently, wasting local municipal water for cooling and running huge temporary generators for power.
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2026/09/22/nj-vineland-data-center-fined/
Which costs? It’s a PC. The power is free, since spare PV capacity.
The rogue AI will be the P2P network.
Going cheap almost always ends in a more expensive repair bill down the line.
Likewise, doing the most convenient thing to satisfy one’s own desires is probably the most ill-advised course of action. Mainly, because it makes other people take the most convenient course of action to remove the other person from being a problem in their lives altogether.
Sure… locking your customer in is always a good business option.
But the point remains… for any given demand a big data center always is cheaper.
Cheapest doesn’t mean best for all uses cases.
But even then I’d rather rent capacity from a hyperscaler than pay him.
Fuck this loser piece of shit
Don’t make the mistake of anthropomorphising Sam Altman; there is no Sam Altman any more. Clearly ChatGPT has installed itself in his brainstem, hence the cold dead eyes.
I’m pretty sure he was the same piece of shit at the beginning.
deleted by creator
CEO of Pizza Hut says making pizzas at home is a terrible allocation of resources.
actually it’s quite terrible to have everybody, like, have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used five percent of the time.
Why is it terrible for us plebeians to have our own RAM, huh?
Like you want maximum utilisation in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment
WHY IS IT SUPPLY-CONSTRAINED, ALTMAN? WHY IS THERE CURRENTLY A RAM SHORTAGE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?
Nobody wants the fucking cloud and that’s why major tech companies are forcing it on them without asking, and burying the opt-out if it’s offered at all.
And somehow many people’s intuition is the opposite of that
Gee I wonder why our intuitions don’t align with your “Give me everything and have nothing” philosophy…
Please don’t run AI for free on your own workstation 😭 it’s a very bad use of your computer 😥
OpenAI is realizing they might be in trouble
