This is peak bubble type shit.
Fuck AI
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.
Probably no other world in the multiverse has warehouses for things which only exist in potentia, but the pork futures warehouse in Ankh-Morpork is a product of the Patrician’s rules about baseless metaphors, the literal-mindedness of citizens who assume that everything must exist somewhere, and the general thinness of the fabric of reality around Ankh, which is so thin that it’s as thin as a very thin thing. The net result is that trading in pork futures—in pork that doesn’t exist yet—led to the building of the warehouse to store it in until it does.
Terry Pratchett, Thud!
That's so freaking funny. Pratchett was just so good.
If I recall correctly that's the same warehouse that later supercools a golem, making him very smart for a bit.
Imagine how cheap it will be once over supply inevitably occurs.
I am salivating over A100/H100 rigs getting dumped en masse. I’ll take one, thanks.
I hope they don’t just toss them in the garbage, like jerks. Last time this happened with crypto, I think Nvidia bought many back to throw away.
Did GPUs become cheap after the previous hype/bubble simmered down? No, they made even bigger bubble requiring even more resources. They will make it even bigger until it requires toilet paper to sustain, then people will riot.
In my time I've certainly seen RAM prices rise and fall depending on supply constraints, same with HDD and SSD. Fair point on GPU's, I just can't see this data center demand remaining as so much of it seems speculative.
The frustration is valid, but it’s less ‘AI is dumb’ and more ‘markets chasing hype create weird shortages.
I'm going to be that guy and point out that LLM's are not really "AI", that's just the corporate buzzword but "AI" is a loosely defined thing.
I think we should all get better at calling them LLM's publicly to take some of the magic woo-woo away.
Right, but in the same spirit, we're not just talking about LLMs. If we're being accurate, the common interface we're used to with ChatGPT or Gemini, they are a system of different models including LLMs and other models for images, or sound.
If we're talking AI in movies and music, besides LLMs for writing, we're mainly concerned with diffusion models
If we're talking AI for wearables... That's usually more on the sensor/classification side of ML, so it's not even generative.
The term "AI" today is almost like the term "computer" decades ago.
As in, "this new vehicle is more efficient than ever thanks to a new aerodynamic shape created not on the drawing board, but on the computer."
Ha! Yes so true.
I think we should call it with the more appropriate acronym: Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences (SALAMI)
Then they can fight over who has the biggest SALAMI
This is how every ramp-up in a market works. It is called hedging. The promised sales volume at that higher price then let companies invest in higher supply.
The problem here is that none of only four companies which manufacture RAM don‘t want to compete for this demand, but instead share the price increase among each either in profit margins. (This is of course, because they don‘t believe in the AI hype, but nonetheless RAM manufacturing is an oligopoly, which is a problem in of itself.)
Ramping up supply costs money, and the AI bubble is on the verge of popping. They'd need to know that this demand would be sticking around before investing in higher fab capacity.

...using gigawatts of power that aren't available on the grid
And megaliters of fresh water.

Immortan Joe sees an opportunity.
Well, if this does come to pass then we'll be getting a ton of cheap memory next year.
Except the memory they're planning to manufacture is not the memory you can just slot into your pc.
Is this a gross exaggeration, or is the entire SaaS-to-hardware supply chain under such deep speculation right now?
It's exaggerated, yes. It's not gross.
It's basically an arms race for a future AI war that probably won't happen.
Sort of like how armies were bankrupting themselves building battleships before WW1... which turned out to not be a sea war at all.
The fear 'losing out' on AI is making companies, and people, totally irrational. All the big players are paranoid that one of the other ones is going to 'get head' of AI market and become a monopoly, just like it was in the past with Google and search, or Apple and the iphone, etc. So crazy stupid expenditures and these massive data center plans now are considered a necessity.
But you are correct the AI demand... simple isn't there and probably won't materialize and the bubble will collapse.
Sort of like how armies were bankrupting themselves building battleships before WW1
An interesting little tidbit: in 1912, 52% of Germany's entire military budget went to the navy. The same navy that spent WWI shelling small coastal villages (killing tens of people) and fleeing from the British navy.
all the big players are paranoid that one of the other ones is going to "get head"
Imagine being worried that someone else is getting a BJ.
Remember folks, since the end of COVID another greedy cork sucker is crowned next billionaire every 30 hours.
The number of billionaires in the USA has nearly and will shortly eclipse double the number there were before 2020. How did they do that, you fucking know. By pretending they would die and their children would get AIDS if they didn't raise the price of every single product on the planet exorbitantly and without need to increase already skyrocketing year to year profitability. These greedy bastards not only did this, they want to kill all of us who they fleeced before we wake up to the facts.
TOO LATE
They never learn, can't self regulate and won't give a flying fuck until presented with a French solution
This actually explains a few things for me.
I never considered that RAM and GPUs could be traded as futures, but obviously they can...
This also reminds me of the trader at a trading company in London who had to take delivery of 28000 tonnes of coal due to forgetting to sell a future he owned.
He only found out as the receptionist asked him to come down and sign for it and he saw barges of coal coming down the river:
This is all just gambling with a bunch of cheaters. They can't use crypto schemes as much because people FINALLY figured out they were pump and dump scams .... so AI investment it is.
If we have to play this bubble game, can we at least force them to build some renewable energy sources with their unlimited funds so when the bubble pops, we have some extra renewable energy available to the grid?
profits that won't happen
I have yet to see speculation as to how the bubble survivors make a profit. At this point I think AI is being pushed to keep propping up the US economy.