all 15 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 25 points 10 months ago (6 children)

The trouble with the railways comparison is that after investing tons of cash the railways were built. With AI the GPUs have no value after 6 years (if that). So the investment must continue forever. It’s madness.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [+] -8 points 10 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago

    It’s not that they don’t technically work. It’s just they’re no longer efficient compared to newer versions that can do more with less power. So to remain competitive you need to upgrade otherwise your cost to execute a model is too high.

    Hyperscalers used to write GPU’s down to zero value after three years, over the last couple of years they’ve all increased this to six.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago*

    It's not actually the transistors that break down in flash memory. Flash memory works by storing charges in what is effectively a grid of capacitors, and in order for the data to remain stored, the insulating oxide layers in the cells need to be preserved. Every time a cell gets written, a charge is forced through the insulation with high voltage, and this degrades the insulation. A single flash cell might only have a few 1000 writes before this insulation goes bad and it no longer holds data. Modern SSDs have wear levelling techniques to make the drive as a whole last longer.

    Transistors on the other hand don't have any inherent degradation that I'm aware of other than external factors like corrosion. The first thing that's likely to die on a GPU is the electrolytic capacitors in the power filtering electronics, which have fluid in them that dries out over many years.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (-1 replies)
    [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    They picked the wrong history, in my not so humble opinion. The AI situation looks more like the dot-com bubble, recycled.

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

    What’s the original link? The archive won’t load for me.

    Edit: I got hit with a captcha that wouldn’t load in DDG mobile. I opened it on a desktop and I have it now.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (4 children)

    How? Archive even loads in Dillo, in a no JS mode.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    500 error, that's service-side

    Usually from too many requests for the server to handle

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments