Altman backs cloud AI over local devices

Sam Altman is arguing that the future of AI should be centered in data centers, not on phones or laptops running local models. He made the comments on the Cheeky Pint podcast while talking about how people think open-source models will make local AI enough on their own.

His point is that, in a world with limited memory supply, it makes more sense to keep RAM in the cloud where it can be used more often. He said it is a bad use of global resources to have lots of DRAM sitting inside individual computers and only being used part of the time.

The comments come as RAM prices keep rising, partly because AI companies are buying up memory for huge data centers. That has already made consumer electronics more expensive, from gaming consoles to iPhones.

Altman’s view points to a future where more AI services are rented from the cloud instead of run locally. That would mean more dependence on big tech companies and their data centers for both AI tools and other computing needs.