OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has changed his display name on X to “Ram Altman” after a backlash over his remarks on computer memory. Indian users have turned the name into a Diwali meme, posting “Happy Diwali” wishes that play on the reference to Lord Ram.

The row began when Altman appeared on the Cheeky Pint podcast, hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison. They were discussing why global chip and memory supply has not kept up with AI demand.

Ram refers to Lord Ram, the Hindu deity whose return to Ayodhya is celebrated at Diwali. RAM stands for random access memory, the computer component at the centre of Altman’s remarks.

Altman questioned whether large amounts of DRAM sitting unused in personal computers were an efficient use of limited global memory supplies. He said cloud data centres can use memory better because they serve multiple users. He also challenged the argument that running open-source AI models locally would ease pressure on data centres.

A clip of the remark went viral on X with the caption “Local inference is a terrible allocation of scarce resources.” Local inference means running an AI model on your own device instead of on a company’s cloud servers.

Video editors, gamers and software developers criticised his comments, saying RAM is crucial for everyday tasks on personal computers.

Critics also noted that OpenAI has reportedly secured a large share of global memory supply, which made the comment sound different coming from a company that benefits from it.

A user on X asked Altman to change his name to “Ram Altman”, and he agreed.

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