Altman says hoarding memory in personal computers is wasteful and it should be moved to the cloud
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a public interview that users around the world hoarding large amounts of memory in personal computers is extremely wasteful, with most machines running at only 5% utilization, and that this high-bandwidth memory should be consolidated into cloud data centers rather than kept locally to run models. He believes that global advanced memory production capacity is a rigid physical bottleneck, and that idle personal devices are diverting strategic materials that should be used for data centers. The article also points out that this statement aligns with OpenAI's business stance of promoting cloud subscriptions, and that cloud efficiency does not equal users' privacy, security, and independent sovereignty.
View original postAfter downing a few glasses of dark beer, OpenAI CEO Altman hesitated in front of the camera, and finally could not hold back. Somewhat losing his composure but speaking very truthfully, he revealed one of OpenAI's deepest secrets. Altman's exact words were, "I probably shouldn't say this, but since we're drinking, I'll say it." A few days ago, after the new ChatGPT model sliced through mathematicians' lifelong research problems like cutting vegetables, he was so excited that he stayed up two nights in a row, yet at dawn he fell into deep sorrow: because he had watched with his own eyes the era in which humanity relied on flesh-and-blood brains to explore truth die completely before him 😭😭 Immediately afterward, he told the story of the crazy weekend inside OpenAI known as "Model Name-Hold My Beer." As soon as the new model ran successfully, a group of the world's top scientists went completely wild in the internal channel. As if posing exam questions to a deity, they threw in all at once the hardest research problems accumulated over decades of their academic careers, unsolved mysteries spanning every discipline, and dead knots that everyone was certain "a machine could absolutely never solve." Then, before everyone's eyes, that model, like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, knocked down these ultimate fortresses of human intelligence one after another. For a single proof related to the Millennium Prize Problem, the Navier-Stokes equations, they poured in $10 million worth of compute. Altman admitted that the actual scientific discoveries produced far exceeded the several hundred results they had publicly released. He was so excited that he stayed awake all night two nights in a row, but the most spine-chilling part of the whole scene was the psychological cliff after his excitement: "I also had more sadness and melancholy than expected, and a feeling that... something is ending." This was absolutely not put-on PR rhetoric, but the instinctive lament of a person who had witnessed the Creator descend, uttered over the ruins. For thousands of years, the reason humanity could hold its head high and call itself the lord of all creation was that we firmly believed the flesh-and-blood brain contained divinity and insight that could not be reduced to formulas. No matter how advanced the tools, those deepest mathematical truths, physical laws, and scientific discoveries would always belong to the supreme crown of a few chosen ones. But on that weekend, that crown was violently and elegantly removed by row after row of cold GPU racks at a compute cost of tens of millions of dollars. The hardest propositions became a question of compute; a lifetime of ascetic pursuit became code run overnight. It proved that the upper limit of humanity's scientific exploration had been infinitely expanded, but it also sounded the death knell for the era in which humanity proudly looked down on the universe relying purely on flesh-and-blood intelligence. The person closest to superintelligence in the world held far more truths than were shown to the outside world, but after drinking, he sounded sadder than anyone 😭
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几杯黑啤下肚之后,OpenAI CEO 奥特曼在镜头前犹豫了一下最后没忍住,有点失态但又非常真实的吐露了OpenAI 最深的一个秘密, 奥特曼原话是“我其实可能不应该说这个,但既然我们在喝酒,我就说了。” 前几天在ChatGPT新模型把数学家们一辈子的研究难题像切菜一样打穿之后,他兴奋得连熬两夜,却在天亮时陷入了深深的悲伤: 因为他亲眼看着人类依靠肉身大脑探索真理的时代,在眼前彻底死去了😭😭 紧接着,他讲了 OpenAI 内部那个被称为“Model Name-Hold My Beer(看我的)”的疯狂周末。 新模型刚跑通, 一群全世界最顶尖的科学家在内部频道里彻底玩疯了, 大家像是在给神明出考题一样, 把各自学术生涯里积攒了几十年最难啃的研究、横跨各个学科的未解之谜、以及所有人都笃定“机器绝对不可能做出来”的死结,一股脑全扔了进去。 然后,那个模型在所有人面前,像秋风扫落叶一样,接二连三把这些人类智力的终极堡垒全部击倒。 单单一个千禧年大奖难题 Navier-Stokes 方程相关的证明,他们就砸进去了 1000 万美元的算力。 奥特曼坦言,实际跑出来的科研发现, 远比他们对外公开发表的那几百个成果多得多。 他连着两个晚上兴奋得彻夜无眠, 但全场最让人脊背发凉的,是他兴奋之后的心理断崖: “我也有比预期更多的悲伤和忧郁,以及一种……某种东西正在结束的感觉。” 这绝不是装模作样的公关辞令,而是一个亲眼目睹了造物主降临的人,在废墟上发出的本能悲叹。 过去几千年,人类之所以能昂着头自封为万物之灵,是因为我们坚信肉身大脑里蕴含着不可被公式化的神性与顿悟。 无论工具多么发达,那些最深奥的数学真理、物理规律和科学发现,永远是属于少数天选之子的至高王冠。 但在那个周末,这顶王冠被一排排冷冰冰的显卡机柜,以千万美元的算力成本,暴力且优雅地摘了下来。 最难的命题变成了算力的问题,一生的苦修变成了通宵跑完的代码, 它证明了人类科学探索的上限被无限拓宽,但也宣判了人类纯粹依靠肉身智慧傲视宇宙的时代,正式敲响了丧钟。 那个世界上离超级智能最近的人,手里握着远比展示给外界更多的真理,但他喝完酒后,听起来比任何人都悲伤😭
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OpenAI 首席执行官 Sam Altman 在最新的公开访谈里,抛出了一个让全网极客炸锅的商业暴论,他觉得普通人在个人电脑里囤大内存简直是暴殄天物, Altman直言全世界用户在个人电脑里囤积了大量的内存简直是极度浪费,
因为大部分机器的使用率只有百分之五,这些宝贵的高带宽内存更应该被集中搬进云端数据中心,而不是留在本地跑模型。
大家默认以为个人电脑里的硬件想装多大是消费者的自由,本地跑轻量开源模型更是一场属于开发者的算力平权。
但大厂巨头看待硬件资源的眼光,从来不在于用户的自由度,而在于整个工业体系的算力集中度。
在顶层模型公司的账本里,全球先进内存的产能是绝对刚性的物理瓶颈,几千万台闲置在书桌上的个人设备,每分每秒都在分流本该堆进数据中心做全天候高负荷运转的战略物资。
就像当年集中供电普及之前,工厂老板看着每家每户都在院子里架设小发电机,一定会觉得这种分散式占有是对有限钢铁和燃料的巨大浪费。
这对所有折腾本地模型、搭建个人工作站的技术人是一个极度清醒的提醒:云端巨头从来不想让你把全部计算握在自己手里,端侧推理和中心化 API 之间,正在爆发一场争夺物理硬件供给的暗战。
当然这种站在算力利用率视角的说辞完全符合 OpenAI 推进云端订阅的商业立场,云端的高效并不等于用户的隐私安全与独立主权,把内存搬进云端,意味着你的计算水龙头也彻底交到了别人手里。
最核心的博弈从来不是内存的使用率到底有多高,而是当 AI 变成下一种电力时,你究竟是拥有自己的发电机,还是只能按月给云端交水电气费。