[markus_zhang]

I don't know anything about tokens. Does the following argument make sense?

1. Tokens are model-specific: e.g. tokens used by Anthropic cannot be used in models of other companies.

2. Tokens are generated by GPU cards. They measure the power of GPU cards.

3. Tokens cannot be separated from the models. You sort of "connect" the software part (models) into the hardware part (GPU cards) to use the tokens generated from the hardware.

[capitalsigma]

Tokens measure "how much work the model did" in the same way that step counts measure "how far the person went"

GPUs "generate tokens" in the same sense that human feet "generate steps"

You can't compare token counts across different providers to get an absolute measure of "total work done" for the same reason that you can't compare step counts across different people to get an absolute measure of "total distance traveled"

[irishcoffee]

No, all 3 points are incorrect. I’m not even pro-LLM and I’ll tell you this.

You should do a bit of reading on what a token is. The short answer is that it’s a series of 2-4 bytes of information turned into an integer.

Your comparisons are akin to asking “are amazon gift cards the same as a bunch of pesos?”