A comment by Sam Altman on the Cheeky Pint podcast was the subject of controversy last weekend. He called the situation “pretty dire” for users who have computers running native AI models that, according to him, use memory 5% of the time. The criticism of the CEO of OpenAI is also quite funny memes.
Now he’s come out to defend his position on Twitter and it appears that, apparently, it’s our fault because “it’s annoying that it’s taken out of context.”
Let’s review it. While we’ve already covered the topic when the OpenAI boss commented on the move on the podcast, I think it’s interesting to go back to see exactly what he said so we’re on the same page:
“Local estimation is a terrible allocation of scarce resources. A lot of people want local estimation and somehow assume that the problem is solved because we have open source models that we can run on our computers and then don’t need all the things that data centers allow.
But from a global allocation point of view, it’s actually pretty terrible that everyone has their own computer with DRAM that’s only used 5% of the time when we live in a time where it’s a finite resource.
In environments where that critical supply is so limited, you want maximum density in the cloud. But, somehow, people’s perception is the opposite.”
Ram Altman. In the podcast he talks about other topics, such as the difficulty of companies that monopolize the production of memory to expand that production, but the statement that lit up the networks and played the funny meme we put above. Perhaps one of the smartest things Elon Musk himself has said recently is “people deserve their own RAM.”
Altman responded to one of these memes and another user asked him if he could change his name to ‘Ram Altman’, which he did for a few hours.
We didn’t understand it. However, instead of letting the matter go, he returned to his comments on the podcast and added the following:
“Actually, I want the world to have a lot of memory and people to put as much memory in their computers as they want.
“I have long argued that the world should increase production of memory.”
🫠It’s a little yes, but no. That is, Altman explained, that because the supply of DRAM is so limited, he thinks it’s best to concentrate its use in the cloud, where the hardware works almost non-stop. But despite the subtlety a few hours ago on Twitter, the podcast itself immortalized the phrase “It’s terrible that everyone has their own computer with DRAM that’s only used 5% of the time when we’re in a time where it’s a finite resource.” It is not taken out of context.
At least, now Altman is pointing where he should be pointing: at the people who make that RAM and why it’s become a critical good, since his company is, rightly, a good part responsible for the fact that users can no longer just access RAM or storage at a good price, but also buy any consumer product that contains these components.
Because maybe we’re the ones who have good reason to complain that maybe some… have taken away all the RAM until 2030. I hope
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