[einrealist]

"After 16 minutes and 41 seconds, it came back" ... "further 47 minutes and 39 seconds" ... "After 13 minutes and 33 seconds" ... "After 9 minutes and 12 seconds" ... "After 31 minutes and 40 seconds" ... plus other computations

Anyone spotting the issue here? What did that really cost?

I am not against compute being used for scientific or other important problems. We did that before LLMs. However, the major LLM gatekeepers want to make all industries and companies dependent on their models. And, at some point, they need to charge them the actual, unsubsidized costs for the compute. In the meantime, companies restructure in the hopes that the compute costs remain cheap.

[sidkshatriya]

> "After 16 minutes and 41 seconds, it came back" ... "further 47 minutes and 39 seconds" ... "After 13 minutes and 33 seconds" ... "After 9 minutes and 12 seconds" ... "After 31 minutes and 40 seconds" ... plus other computations Anyone spotting the issue here? What did that really cost?

Whatever the Joules... (convert to $ using your preferred benchmark price) it is a fraction to what it might take a human Ph. D. weeks to feed and sustain themselves when working on the same problem. The economics on LLMs is just unbeatable (sadly) when compared to us humans.

[einrealist]

Compute in science was already subsidized by public funding or by donations. Most supercomputers are financed this way. And that's a good thing. If you have a good science problem that can be computed, apply for compute time. There is nothing wrong to apply that to LLMs as well, like I wrote in my initial post. The human is still required to identity problems that are worth to be computed, to create prompts that the LLM can act on, and to verify results. But, OpenAI providing compute for basically free is still tied to a different incentive: to fuel the hype and to capture the market, while distorting/obfuscating the real costs. That's also the reason for why we cannot claim that 'economics on LLMs is just unbeatable'. It depends on the problem, the reason for a prompt.

[intexpress]

Not necessarily. Humans brains use a tiny amount of power. Most of the human cost would be due to the very high cost of housing in many locations.

[sidkshatriya]

Yes I agree and this is what I meant. The cost of electricity, petroleum, transportation, the cost of goods brought in from around the world to feed and clothe the human and so on.

The real power required to support a human life in a developed country is a lot. Wattage for the human brain is definitely miniscule in comparison.

[hackable_sand]

Are you guys being intentionally obtuse?

Do you understand the difference between an apple and an apple tree?

[colordrops]

Still not as bad for the environment as animal agriculture, and animal agriculture is absolutely not necessary and only causes harm and suffering for taste pleasure. At least with LLMs we get many positive advancements from them. I don't see these sorts of comments every time someone posts a burger review.

[einrealist]

Did I praise our animal agriculture anywhere?

[colordrops]

We have a wide audience.