- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says people having low-use RAM sitting in their PCs is a terrible allocation.
- He argues this memory could be better utilized in data centers instead of personal use or local AI models.
- Sam also says it’s important this limited memory is used efficiently in the cloud instead.
The argument for better allocation of RAM and memory has become increasingly relevant, as AI oligarchs continue to hoard the world’s supply to power AI hyperscaler data centers. What was once a low-margin commodity is now being sought like it’s gold.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims in an interview that the worldwide supply of RAM is being wasted and underutilized, just sitting in people’s PCs. He argues that all this low-use memory could be allocated for better efficiency in data centers instead.
Why it matters: Sam Altman’s words about better allocation of people’s RAM have triggered a widespread backlash, with people arguing they shouldn’t be expected to give up memory for AI infrastructure.
Speaking in an interview with Cheeky Pint, Sam Altman clarifies that many people want to run local AI models, thinking the resources needed for data centers are suddenly irrelevant.
He argues that the world’s memory supply is already limited, so most of it underutilized sitting in PCs is a huge waste of resources. He says RAM is only used “5% of the time.”
But from a global allocation perspective, actually, it’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used five percent of the time.
-OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman.
His words imply it’s wrong for people to use RAM for personal reasons, such as gaming, browsing the internet, or running open-source AI models. To him, all these resources could be used to maximize utilization in the cloud and data centers for better AI efficiency.
You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply constrained environment. Somehow many people’s intuition is the opposite of that.
However, people have bashed him for his take, calling out his criticism of low memory supply. The irony is that OpenAI played a major role in constraining the world’s memory supply chain in the first place because of the growing demand for AI hardware.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devotedly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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