If you’re a gamer, you already know how hard the AI race has hit your wallet. Consoles that used to be reasonably priced now cost nearly $1,000. The same goes for computers; any company that uses DRAM is up against companies like OpenAI, Alphabet, and Meta, which want to use them for their data centers.
There have even been rumors that the PlayStation 6 will cost over $1,000 because of RAM prices.
“Today’s rumor comes via a long thread about next-gen hardware on NeoGaf, where known leaker Kepler_L2 simply said: “RAM + NAND alone is over $680.” This was in response to another commenter who optimistically hoped that the console would come in at around $680. But, if Kepler_L2’s numbers are right, and you should take them with a grain of salt, there’s little chance of that happening.”
In an interview with a show called Cheeky Pint, Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, opined that personal use of RAM was wasteful from his perspective.
“From a global allocation perspective, actually, it’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer and being used 5% of the time,” Altman said. “You want maximum utilization in the cloud if you’re trying to deal with this very supply-constrained environment. And somehow many people’s intuition is the opposite of that.”
Altman is already rather unpopular with hardcore gamers, but this quote will likely make the CEO a persona non grata among them. When you think about the argument for more than a few moments, you realize how silly it is. How much does 32 GB of RAM in an enthusiast’s personal computer really matter when compared to what data centers use?
It is also boldly tone-deaf to suggest that regular people should give up their own RAM, when gaming is one of the few affordable hobbies people have. It is similar to the CEO of McDonald’s going on a podcast and saying that cooking at home is a waste and too time-consuming, so people should stop doing it and instead eat every meal at their restaurants.
I’m sure that would be great for McDonald’s in the same way that allowing OpenAI to have all our RAM would be great for them, but people enjoy cooking at home the same way they enjoy having their own personal computers.
Also, if the argument is that you can rent computing power from these companies, I have to say I’ve personally been unimpressed by what Nvidia and Microsoft offer with their cloud gaming services. So, another day, and another out-of-touch CEO making a fool of himself.
