Commentary: Altman complained about so much memory being in regular people's computers, rather than data centers. Here's what he meant and why it's so tiring.

What does Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, think about you using RAM (aka memory) in the computer you own? It’s tough to say, because he’s made multiple contradictory statements following an interview last week where he said, “It’s quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world’s limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer.”

Altman appeared to put the blame for RAM shortages on computer owners who have the hardware — which is necessary to run graphics and AI, among other things — and only use it “5% of the time,” as he said. Meanwhile, people are blaming data centers and the rapacious RAM acquisition of companies like OpenAI as the chief reason why computers have become astronomically expensive, game consoles are now beyond anyone’s reasonable budget and other device pricing woes. Internet users responded to Altman’s criticism with anger, memes and some sharp criticism of their own.

The saga, which included Altman briefly changing his social media handle to say Ram Altman, led to a flurry of Tuesday tweets on X where Altman backtracked, saying, “I actually do want the world to have tons of memory and people to put as much as they want in their computers, and it is fucking annoying that this was taken out of context.”

A representative from OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source link