javiJun 11, 2024
The AI industry is a grift so big that it's really hard to explain it to people not familiar with the tech industry.

Yes, Google is perfectly aware their AI-powered search is way worse than their "classic" mode.

Yes, Apple knows their integration with chatGPT is flaky and ads nothing useful to their products. And

They.

Don't.

Care.

Because the goal is not making their products better, the goal is to ride the hype wave so the investors are happy and their stock price keeps growing.

That's almost entirely what's powering the AI industry.

It's a multibillon dollar grift. One so big and so obvious that most people think they have to be missing something, that they don't understand something that makes everything to make it makes sense as a business.

No. That's everything. It's pure snake oil selling.
Show threadNazaniJun 12, 2024
@javi I thought crypto was a bubble & would be gone by now, yet here we are. 🤷‍♀️
Show threadCassandrich
@Nazani @javi This is crypto rebranded. They even get to reuse the same hardware (GPUs) and the main pusher (nvidia) gets to keep selling them.
Jun 12, 2024 at 9:55pmWeb
Show threadNazaniJun 12, 2024
@dalias @javi
My main concern is all the energy these use up- while so many struggle to afford AC.
Show threadSystem AdminihaterJun 19, 2024
@Nazani @dalias @javi If you cared about that you would probably have stopped them from getting tax abatements to build their shitty datacenters. Oh also they get discounted power too.
Show threadNazaniJun 19, 2024
@systemadminihater @dalias @javi Yes, I'll just single-handedly revoke everything our Trump-loving governor has done, and override the governments of counties I don't live in. 🙄
https://www.vedp.org/industry/data-centers
Data Centers | Virginia Economic Development Partnership

Building on a rich history of federal investments in fiber optics as well as pioneering tax advantages, Virginia hosts the largest data center market in the world and is home to more than 35% (~150) of all known hyperscale data centers worldwide.  America’s East Coast Tech Hub Brochure

VEDP
Show threadmarkJun 15, 2024

@dalias @Nazani @javi the really fun part here is that the nft mining gpus are basically useless in this bubble. Everyone needs the latest and greatest, and Nvidia keeps cranking new models out to feed the junkies.

You could buy a house for the price of these on release day.

Show threadJørnJun 15, 2024
@ATLeagle @dalias @Nazani @javi So we’re still growing the electronics graveyard. That is a fun part indeed.
Show threadTom Bellin Jun 15, 2024

@dalias @Nazani @javi the current AI wave was *caused* by a glut of coprocessing chips that were produced by Nvidia and purchased by al cloud hosting providers with the plan to sell blockchain/"bitcoin mining as a service" to corporate customers.

But that bubble popped and they were left with tremendously expensive servers, specifically useful only for parallel computation, that nobody wanted to use.

Show threadCassandrichJun 15, 2024
@tob @Nazani @javi Nobody wanted to use it because parallel computation is largely useless. All the interesting parts of computation have data dependent code paths. GPUs are the computational version of the mass production capitalist brainworms of "amortize cost by doing the exact same thing at a scale much larger than anyone needs" rather than optimizing efficiency at small or single unit.
Show threadAllan ChowJun 15, 2024
@dalias @tob @Nazani @javi look I need to be able to run my python scripts at the command line multiple times at once
Show threadAllan ChowJun 15, 2024

@dalias @tob @Nazani @javi death by run on sentences

Punctuation is the Weapon of Choice: Thoughts about Punctuation Attacks Against LLMs.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/punctuation-weapon-choice-thoughts-attacks-against-llms-robi-sen?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via

Punctuation is the Weapon of Choice: Thoughts about Punctuation Attacks Against LLMs.

Note: This is an early draft and poorly done. If you would like to add your criticism, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Show threadsamiamsamJun 15, 2024

@tob @dalias @Nazani @javi techbros are not smart

example 1,345,671

Show threadOctorineJun 15, 2024

@dalias @Nazani @javi My personal conspiracy theory about all of this is that that's the whole point.

A lot of people bought Nvidia stock during the nft bubble and then had to create the ai bubble to keep the stock price up long enough for them to sell out. Only now the ai bubble looks like it has legs, so some of them decided to stay in.

Show threadCassandrichJun 15, 2024
@octorine @Nazani @javi Yep. We could really use some direct economic action against nvidia...
Show threadCassandrichJun 15, 2024
@octorine @Nazani @javi The fucking end of the world is going to be thanks to fucking AAA gaming asshats who couldn't be content with the perfectly good 3D we had with software rendering in 1999.
Show threadPeter AshfordJun 15, 2024
@dalias @octorine @Nazani @javi those AAA gaming asshats can't buy Nvidia GPUs at the top end because they're all being purchased by other big players in the the tech industry. People who just want to play games aren't the reason Nvidia is suddenly one of the most valuable companies in the world
Show threadCassandrichJun 15, 2024
@kaffiene @octorine @Nazani @javi I mean they're what launched nvidia into existence 20-some years ago.
Show threadPeter AshfordJun 15, 2024
@dalias @octorine @Nazani @javi Ah sorry, they're responsible for Nvidia in the first place. Yeah, that's true., but also nvidia is just an enabling technology for AI. You could just as easily blame IBM for creating the PC. What nvidia were setting out to do was not all *this*
Show threadCassandrichJun 15, 2024
@kaffiene @octorine @Nazani @javi Yeah, I meant it more as an unintended consequences shitpost.
Show threadzeruchJun 20, 2024
@kaffiene @dalias @octorine @Nazani @javi blaming gamers for this debacle is like blaming people who use plastic straws for climate change. At some minute level, sure they are a contributing factor, but in no way are they moving the needle compared to the big players really pushing and expanding the problem.
Show threadAndrew ZonenbergJun 15, 2024

@dalias @octorine @Nazani @javi I mean I'd love to see the bubble pop, if nothing else so I can get some heavy floating point compute on the cheap lol.

Idgaf about all of the fp16/fp8/fp4 AI nonsense. But I'll happily grab all the float32 flops and memory bandwidth I can get for waveform processing and scientific number crunching.

Show threadOctorineJun 15, 2024
@azonenberg @dalias @Nazani @javi I just want to play video games. My 1080ti is getting a little long in the tooth, but replacing it is going to cost an arm and a leg.
Show threadAndrew ZonenbergJun 15, 2024

@octorine @dalias @Nazani @javi Yep. I just wish they'd come out with something that has a lot of memory and is less power hungry than the ludicrous 4090 and less expensive than the datacenter cards.

Where can I get like a 4070 with 48GB of RAM? The tooling i work with eats VRAM for breakfast but typically gets bottlenecked on memory so after a point adding more shader cores doesn't help that much.

Show threadwrosecransJun 15, 2024

@octorine @dalias @Nazani @javi

"This time it's different!!!" is the core slogan/belief/delusion of every bubble. So of course the people involved have convinced themselves "sure, crypto was empty hype (I believed in at the time), but now the AI hype is completely real because that means I'm investing my money/resources/tulips wisely and I want to feel wise therefore it must be true!"

Show threadPeter AshfordJun 15, 2024
@dalias @Nazani @javi it really isn't. The tech is completely different and nvidia didn't create either, they're just right place right time for what other people are doing.
I think what's going on is like the early www days where every business had to be on the Web but they had no idea why.
Show threadchxJun 20, 2024
@dalias @Nazani @javi ChatGPT launched on Nov 30 just three weeks after the FTX collapse. It is obvious the usual hustlers took whatever was ready at OpenAI and rushed it to market, hence the odd version number of GPT 3.5.