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by lern_too_spel 2858 days ago
The "I have almost no money" recommendation should include Colab. https://medium.com/deep-learning-turkey/google-colab-free-gp...

Somebody who has almost no money isn't going to be able to equip a desktop with a GTX 1050 Ti ($175), fast disk ($50), and RAM ($50) on an entry level cpu/motherboard/power supply/case/monitor/peripherals ($300) and pay for the electricity used during training. Colab can be accessed from a free public computer or a cheap Chromebook ($200).

3 comments

A cheap (but not free) option is leadergpu.com - no affiliation, they just seem like super nice people and have per-minute billing. They are Dutch.
What are the rules about datasets I upload to this free service? Do Google now own them?
My guess it's the standard caveat: if you don't pay for the service, you and your stuff is the commodity.
I would imagine no more than it owns the files you upload to Google Drive. The disk on the Colab instance is ephemeral, so you will need external storage for your dataset anyway.
If you have the programming skills necessary to develop deep learning applications, it should be assumed that you can also easily get a well-paying job so this isn't really even relevant.
Maybe you want to learn. Maybe you want to retain your current job because you like it even if it pay less then you could achieve, and you still would like to develop your other skills. Or maybe you want to stay close to your family, or in a place where they speak your mother tongue. Or maybe you just want to spend carefully your money even if you have plenty.