>There is something grim and dystopian, thinking about the countless small hands feeding the machine.

Dystopian indeed, this is pretty much how Manhattan Project and CERN were done, with many independent contractors doing different parts, and only a few has the overview. A page out of corporate management book, it very much allows concentration of power in the hands of a few.

Very generous to compare to Manhattan Project or CERN.

don't buy into the hype, but when Facebook has spent around as much on GPUs as the Manhattan project (but not the Apollo program), the comparison kinda makes itself.

https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1786213463456448900

$22 in 2008 -> $33 today https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=22&year1=20080...

I read this last week and its terrifying. If the world lets Facebook become an AI leader its on us as we all know how that story will play out.

We must summon a fellowship of the AI ring with one hobbit capable of withstanding the corrupting allure of it all.

Don't torment the hobbits! Send the eagles right away!

The Big Dig (Boston highway overhaul) cost $22bn in 2024 dollars. The Three Gorges dam cost $31bn. These are expensive infrastructure projects (including the infrastructure for data centers). It doesn't say anything about how important they are for society.

Comparing LLMs to the Manhattan Project based on budget alone is stupid and arrogant. The comparison only "makes itself" because Ethan Mollick is a childish and unscientific person.

>Comparing LLMs to the Manhattan Project based on budget alone is stupid and arrogant

Just want to clarify. The comparison to Manhattan Project or CERN is referencing "the countless small hands feeding the machine." In projects such as these, roles and jobs are divided into small parts, that people who are working on it don't really see the forest from the tree, and that only a few that has the picture of the whole project.

Since when is CERN a dystopian project?

Big Government Socialism won't let you build your own 25km-circumference particle accelerator. Bureaucrats make you fill out "permits" and "I-9s for the construction workers instead of hiring undocumented day laborers."

I am wondering if "CERN was pushed on the masses by the few" is an oblique reference to public fears that the LHC would destroy the world.

Maybe it's the only way. Companies that don't have that concentrated power will probably fall apart.

The big difference is that CERN or Manhattan projects where done by local contractors with often more than decent wages, which isn't the case when you pay people from Madagascar a couple dollar a day.

Hard to defend because once your model is out there other companies can train on its output.

Yes, but the output is only one third of the data. You also need the input and the annotations.