Sam Altman thinks owning RAM in your own PC is "terrible"
Altman said in a recent interview that it's "quite terrible" for people to have "a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer.
The price of memory has skyrocketed and Sam Altman thinks it's our fault. The OpenAI CEO said in a recent interview with YouTuber Cheeky Pint and Stripe that it's "quite terrible" for people to have "a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer." Oh, boy!
OpenAI CEO thinks people are wasting good RAM
Let's unpack this further. Sam Altman, the guy who created the modern LLM and unleashed it on the world, thinks WE are wasting RAM in our desktop computers? To be fair to the guy, these quotes are slightly taken out of context.
The conversation steered toward AI utilization on-device, meaning people running AI models on their computers. Altman said that if we want to tackle this "supply-constrained environment," we should let data centers have the physical RAM and use cloud-based AI models.
Poll
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Do you think Mr. Altman is right and we should resort to cloud-based services, or do people deserve to have their RAM indeed?
Sam Altman has a point, but he delivered it the wrong way
The internet is reacting to Sam Altman's interview with funny memes. | Image by Reddit
It's true that AI data centers can utilize RAM much more efficiently, not only running AI-specific tasks only and not loading an OS into the system, but also routing resources where they are needed. A local desktop PC that's idling while you're listening to music is indeed a waste of RAM.
But Mr. Altman forgets two very important factors. First, the memory crisis is a result of the chaotic scaling of AI models and the underlying raw power coming from those data centers. There's no plan to account for the potential and actual shortages, and there hasn't been any since the inception of AI as we now know it.
Companies just hoard all the RAM they can get their hands on, reserve supply years in advance, and don't care about the impact on other industries. The second big problem is that people have the freedom to do with their own property whatever they like.
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I have two desktop PCs, leftovers from my time at PCWorld, and one stays turned off most of the time. Both feature 32GB of relatively fast DDR4, and I'm not feeling bad for not giving them to Sam Altman.
OpenAI has been sucking up the world's RAM supply
Accodring to SanDisk 50% of the company's memory output is locked in by AI data centers until the end of the decade. | Image by Microsoft
The fact that OpenAI has tied up roughly 40 percent of the world's RAM output through various agreements makes Sam Altman's position even more insulting to regular people like you and me. People use their computers for much more than AI prompts.
Even if we leave the gaming portion aside, and it's not a small chunk, there are people who do video and audio editing, emulation, design work, and other RAM-demanding tasks. Not all of them can be and should be outsourced to the cloud.
I would much rather do my work on my PC than pay for monthly subscriptions, which is the norm nowadays. The problem, of course, extends beyond PCs.
Smartphones are getting more and more expensive
Elon musk chimed in and stated that people deserve to have their RAM too. | Image by X
Probably the most popular gadget worldwide is the smartphone. I won't even delve into other gadgets that use RAM. Global smartphone adoption has reached 5.12 billion unique users, representing roughly 57% of the total world population.
The recent AI push has made smartphones much more expensive, and the trend is not changing anytime soon. So, basically, OpenAI and other big AI data center customers are blowing up the prices for the most popular electronics almost everyone uses, and blaming us for hindering their aggressive expansion plans.
By the way, the backlash from this interview is already all over the internet, and even Elon Musk has chimed in saying that "People deserve to have their RAM too!" What do you think about this? Do you think Mr. Altman is right and we should resort to cloud-based services, or do people deserve to have their RAM indeed?
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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