Ask HN: Can distributed data centers in individual households provide UBI?

1 points by SuboptimalEng 5 days ago | 6 comments

Obviously, no body likes the idea of having or living next to a data center. And AI companies want to solve UBI in a sensible manner. Why not combine these two things?

AI companies, go to individual homes in a community, ask to install a GPU cluster (for a size that fits + owner agrees to), and pay the household some 100s or 1000s of dollars a month?

Yes, this will cause wild incentives (for those with apartments, multiple homes, etc.) which would need to be addressed, but surely, this would long term benefit the household and also the AI companies?

Almost like how your internet service provider provides you with a device that provides Wifi, but for GPU compute?

icedchai 5 days ago |

Cooling, power, physical security, Internet bandwidth (and to a lesser extent, latency) are all issues if you are actually using those GPUs for a customer.

1337h4xx 5 days ago |

Nice GPU you got there. Would be a shame if someone stole it and sold it for pennies on the dollar. We can't even deliver a meal autonomously in the USA.

SuboptimalEng 5 days ago | |

True. Maybe we could start with smaller sized GPUs until it becomes the norm in society to have GPU clusters in homes, then upgrade where necessary?

Get those AI companies to compete on who installs the GPUs, and let them offer incentives to you (the house owner) on who to choose :)

verdverm 5 days ago | | |

Most houses would require an electrical upgrade. Then what about renters?

The real thing to consider is that this will likely commodify like mobile data and eventually everyone will have unlimited plans. There's not actually money in serving Ai to the masses in the long run.

1337h4xx 5 days ago | | |

Big tech already gives away compute, but GPUs keep getting pricier and more efficient... Maybe if you pledge the value of your home against those GPUs.

evil-olive 5 days ago |

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burglary