Interesting article, thanks. I've done a bit of small scale phone farming (for my own cheap mobile proxies). In all reality the phones aren't that expensive, I went with Moto 5gs that cost $130 (retail), so in their case the phones pay for themselves in the first month.

Probably a decent amount of compute cost for video generation, but I'm sure they have access to free compute and inference for being in bed with a16z.

If you are OK with carrier locks (eg if you don't need cell service) and are in the USA, you can actually get mot 5Gs for $30 at walmart. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Motorola-Moto-g-202...