Re:Ask HN: Can you crowdfund the compute for GPT?
by throwaway14356 on Thursday January 12, 2023 @10:51AM
(#34355309)
It would require a problem that reasonably fits the solution.
You for example get a keyboards and a set of hands with each node, a webcam, a microphone.
I have no real idea but it seems the hand of cards isn't hopeless.
Re:Ask HN: Can you crowdfund the compute for GPT?
by humanizersequel on Thursday January 12, 2023 @10:51AM
(#34355329)
>AWS could sell ML compute at-cost and still turn a profit
How? Definitionally, they wouldn't be turning a profit.
Re:Ask HN: Can you crowdfund the compute for GPT?
by smoldesu on Thursday January 12, 2023 @10:55AM
(#34355400)
Traditionally, people don't just get one thing from AWS. If their ML compute doesn't make money, S3 Object Storage will. My bigger point is that AWS and Azure have much greater control over their margins than a business like the one OP was describing.
Re:Ask HN: Can you crowdfund the compute for GPT?
by latchkey on Thursday January 12, 2023 @10:53AM
(#34355376)
Large enough miners don't have the right hardware. Mining requires a tiny cpu, very little ram and gpus with a max of 8gb, oh and 100mbit. There was never an incentive to buy hardware that could be reused for other purposes since mining itself was such a cash cow.
Company Beta likely started off with hardware for AI/ML and mined on the side when they didn't have enough customers.
What made this type of business feasible/attractive for cryptocurrency is that the miners were Company Beta. There wasn't two mouths to feed or two pockets to line, just a direct and transparent reward scheme for people donating compute. Projects like Folding@Home have leveraged world-scale networks before, but I'm not aware of anyone who's managed to monetize it.