
OpenAI的人工智能軟件必須使用專(zhuān)用計(jì)算機(jī)芯片,,而芯片荒阻礙了該公司的業(yè)務(wù),,并且除了ChatGPT以外,該公司并不打算發(fā)布面向消費(fèi)者的產(chǎn)品,。據(jù)報(bào)道,,OpenAI聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官山姆·阿爾特曼兩周前在倫敦與軟件開(kāi)發(fā)者和初創(chuàng)公司CEO們召開(kāi)了一次非公開(kāi)會(huì)議。一位與會(huì)者的博客爆料稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼在會(huì)上披露了許多信息,,以上的信息只是其中的兩條。據(jù)稱(chēng)此次會(huì)議約有20人參會(huì),。最初發(fā)表這篇博客的頁(yè)面顯示,,應(yīng)OpenAI的要求,爆料此次閉門(mén)會(huì)議的賬號(hào)已經(jīng)關(guān)閉,但這并沒(méi)有阻止人工智能界深入分析這位有影響力的CEO的(所謂的)言論,。
一個(gè)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)存檔網(wǎng)站已經(jīng)保存了一份原博客的副本,,之后文章內(nèi)容在社交媒體和程序員聚集的多個(gè)論壇上廣泛傳播。人工智能專(zhuān)家拉扎·哈畢比在博客中寫(xiě)道,,阿爾特曼表示,,OpenAI無(wú)法買(mǎi)到足夠多運(yùn)行人工智能應(yīng)用需要使用的專(zhuān)用計(jì)算機(jī)芯片圖形處理單元(GPU),這阻礙了公司的短期計(jì)劃,,也為使用OpenAI服務(wù)的開(kāi)發(fā)者帶來(lái)了麻煩,。哈畢比是Humanloop公司的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼CEO。哈畢比的初創(chuàng)公司位于倫敦,,該公司率先提出了提高大語(yǔ)言模型訓(xùn)練效率的方法,。大語(yǔ)言模型是OpenAI ChatGPT使用的基礎(chǔ)技術(shù)。
GPU荒導(dǎo)致OpenAI更難支持用戶(hù)通過(guò)大語(yǔ)言模型推送更多數(shù)據(jù),,并延緩了公司發(fā)布更多功能和服務(wù)的計(jì)劃,。該公司的ChatGPT等產(chǎn)品均以大語(yǔ)言模型作為核心。此外,,博客中表示,,芯片荒還降低了OpenAI現(xiàn)有服務(wù)的速度和可靠性,這會(huì)令客戶(hù)不滿(mǎn),,使他們不愿意基于OpenAI的技術(shù)開(kāi)發(fā)企業(yè)應(yīng)用,。OpenAI在生成式人工智能繁榮中的先行者優(yōu)勢(shì),,也會(huì)因?yàn)樾酒?yīng)緊張而面臨威脅,,因?yàn)楣雀瑁℅oogle)和其他知名度較低的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手都有能力推出競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性服務(wù),而且開(kāi)源競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手已經(jīng)進(jìn)一步站穩(wěn)腳跟,。
關(guān)于“語(yǔ)境窗口”
阿爾特曼列舉了OpenAI因?yàn)橛布ㄈ缧酒┒倘睙o(wú)法開(kāi)展的多項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù),。哈畢比在博客中寫(xiě)道,其中包括向其GPT大語(yǔ)言模型的大多數(shù)客戶(hù)提供更長(zhǎng)的“語(yǔ)境窗口”,。語(yǔ)境窗口決定了在模型中輸入一條提示詞可以調(diào)用的數(shù)據(jù)數(shù)量,,以及模型的響應(yīng)時(shí)間。大多數(shù)GPT-4用戶(hù)的語(yǔ)境窗口支持的標(biāo)記數(shù)量為8,000個(gè)(一個(gè)標(biāo)記是人工智能模型進(jìn)行預(yù)測(cè)所依據(jù)的一段數(shù)據(jù),,相當(dāng)于約一個(gè)半英文單詞),。OpenAI在3月宣布為其模型的精選客戶(hù)提供支持32,000個(gè)標(biāo)記的語(yǔ)境窗口,但很少有用戶(hù)能夠使用該功能,,哈畢比的博客稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼將此歸咎于GPU短缺。
全球大多數(shù)人工智能應(yīng)用在GPU上訓(xùn)練和運(yùn)行,。GPU作為一種計(jì)算機(jī)芯片,,通過(guò)高速并行處理進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)分析。大多數(shù)GPU芯片來(lái)自一家公司,那就是英偉達(dá)(Nvidia),,而且售價(jià)可能高達(dá)數(shù)千甚至數(shù)十萬(wàn)美元,。市場(chǎng)觀察家已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn),由于英偉達(dá)與生成式人工智能繁榮的關(guān)聯(lián),,其股價(jià)暴漲,,而且其市值最近突破了1萬(wàn)億美元。
哈畢比在博客中爆料,,OpenAI聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼CEO還向開(kāi)發(fā)者保證,,除了ChatGPT以外,OpenAI沒(méi)有計(jì)劃發(fā)布任何面向消費(fèi)者的產(chǎn)品,。哈畢比稱(chēng),,許多參會(huì)的開(kāi)發(fā)者告訴阿爾特曼,,他們對(duì)于使用OpenAI的人工智能模型進(jìn)行開(kāi)發(fā)感到擔(dān)心,,因?yàn)闊o(wú)法確定OpenAI是否會(huì)發(fā)布競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性產(chǎn)品。阿爾特曼表示,,ChatGPT將是其唯一一款面向消費(fèi)者的產(chǎn)品,,而且公司的未來(lái)愿景是成為一款“超級(jí)智能的工作助手”,但OpenAI“不會(huì)涉足”許多需要使用GPT大語(yǔ)言模型的行業(yè)特定應(yīng)用,。
阿爾特曼還表示,,他一個(gè)月前所說(shuō)的“超大規(guī)模模型的時(shí)代”將要結(jié)束的觀點(diǎn)被錯(cuò)誤解讀,。他對(duì)開(kāi)發(fā)者表示,,他想要表達(dá)的意思是,,OpenAI最強(qiáng)大的大語(yǔ)言模型GPT-4的規(guī)模已經(jīng)足夠龐大,,因此公司不可能繼續(xù)快速擴(kuò)大人工智能系統(tǒng)的規(guī)模,。他在倫敦會(huì)議上表示,OpenAI會(huì)繼續(xù)創(chuàng)建更大的模型,,但它們的規(guī)模只會(huì)有GPT-4的兩倍或三倍,,而不是擴(kuò)大數(shù)百萬(wàn)倍。
爆料稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼在與開(kāi)發(fā)者的對(duì)話中,,還分享了OpenAI的近期發(fā)展規(guī)劃,。哈畢比的博客稱(chēng),阿爾特曼表示,,在2023年,OpenAI的目標(biāo)是提高GPT-4的運(yùn)行速度和降低其成本,,提供更長(zhǎng)的“語(yǔ)境窗口”以支持用戶(hù)向OpenAI的GPT模型中輸入更多數(shù)據(jù)并獲得更長(zhǎng)的輸出結(jié)果,,推出更方便客戶(hù)根據(jù)具體使用案例調(diào)整GPT-4的方法,,并支持ChatGPT及其大語(yǔ)言模型能夠保留歷史對(duì)話記憶,從而使用戶(hù)想要繼續(xù)未完成的對(duì)話或重復(fù)與模型的互動(dòng)時(shí),,不需要每次都要重復(fù)按照相同的順序輸入提示,。
阿爾特曼表示,,公司明年的工作重點(diǎn)是發(fā)布GPT-4根據(jù)輸入的圖片輸出結(jié)果的能力,。OpenAI在3月發(fā)布該模型時(shí)演示了這項(xiàng)功能,,但尚未向大多數(shù)客戶(hù)開(kāi)放,。
哈畢比寫(xiě)道,,在監(jiān)管方面,,阿爾特曼對(duì)開(kāi)發(fā)者表示,,他并不認(rèn)為現(xiàn)有模型帶來(lái)了任何嚴(yán)重的風(fēng)險(xiǎn),,而且“對(duì)現(xiàn)有模型進(jìn)行監(jiān)管或者禁用將是嚴(yán)重的錯(cuò)誤”,。阿爾特曼重申了他公開(kāi)的立場(chǎng),即OpenAI認(rèn)同開(kāi)源人工智能軟件的重要性,,并證實(shí)了科技刊物《The Information》關(guān)于OpenAI正在將其某一款模型開(kāi)源的報(bào)道,。博客稱(chēng),阿爾特曼表示,,公司可能將其GPT-3模型開(kāi)源,,但到目前為止之所以沒(méi)有這樣做,是因?yàn)榘柼芈皯岩捎卸嗌賯€(gè)人和公司有能力托管和服務(wù)”大語(yǔ)言模型,。
據(jù)稱(chēng)阿爾特曼在閉門(mén)會(huì)議上表示,,OpenAI仍在分析OpenAI Plus的用戶(hù)希望如何使用這款插件。該插件支持大語(yǔ)言模型使用其他軟件,。哈畢比在博客中表示,,這可能意味著這款插件尚未達(dá)到產(chǎn)品與市場(chǎng)契合的程度,因此在短期內(nèi)不會(huì)通過(guò)OpenAI的API向企業(yè)客戶(hù)發(fā)布,。
哈畢比和OpenAI并未立即回復(fù)《財(cái)富》雜志的置評(píng)請(qǐng)求,。
哈畢比的博客在社交媒體和開(kāi)發(fā)者論壇上引起了激烈討論。許多人表示,,阿爾特曼的言論證明了GPU荒問(wèn)題對(duì)于釋放大語(yǔ)言模型的商業(yè)潛力的重要性,。也有人表示,,這證明了來(lái)自開(kāi)源人工智能社區(qū)的許多創(chuàng)新對(duì)于人工智能未來(lái)的重要性。開(kāi)源社區(qū)開(kāi)發(fā)的創(chuàng)新途徑,,可以使用更少算力和更少數(shù)據(jù),,實(shí)現(xiàn)與規(guī)模最大的專(zhuān)有人工智能模型類(lèi)似的性能。
Signal基金會(huì)(Signal Foundation)的總裁,、大型科技公司的主要批評(píng)者梅雷迪思·惠特克在柏林召開(kāi)的一次會(huì)議上接受場(chǎng)邊采訪時(shí)表示,,這篇博客表明,全球最大的科技公司扼制了當(dāng)前人工智能軟件的基礎(chǔ),,因?yàn)橹挥羞@些大公司有實(shí)力提供訓(xùn)練最大規(guī)模的人工智能模型所需要的計(jì)算資源和數(shù)據(jù),。她說(shuō)到:“看得出來(lái),盡管OpenAI能夠使用微軟(Microsoft)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施,,但對(duì)其約束最大的因素是GPU,。”她提到的是OpenAI與微軟的合作,。到目前為止,,微軟在來(lái)自舊金山的人工智能初創(chuàng)公司OpenAI投資了130億美元。 “你必須有超級(jí)昂貴的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施才能這樣做,?!彼硎荆藗儾灰`以為開(kāi)源人工智能社區(qū)存在,,就代表“行業(yè)格局是真正民主化和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性的”,。 (財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
《財(cái)富》駐柏林記者大衛(wèi)·邁爾為本文做出了貢獻(xiàn)。
翻譯:劉進(jìn)龍
審校:汪皓
OpenAI的人工智能軟件必須使用專(zhuān)用計(jì)算機(jī)芯片,,而芯片荒阻礙了該公司的業(yè)務(wù),,并且除了ChatGPT以外,該公司并不打算發(fā)布面向消費(fèi)者的產(chǎn)品,。據(jù)報(bào)道,,OpenAI聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官山姆·阿爾特曼兩周前在倫敦與軟件開(kāi)發(fā)者和初創(chuàng)公司CEO們召開(kāi)了一次非公開(kāi)會(huì)議。一位與會(huì)者的博客爆料稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼在會(huì)上披露了許多信息,,以上的信息只是其中的兩條。據(jù)稱(chēng)此次會(huì)議約有20人參會(huì),。最初發(fā)表這篇博客的頁(yè)面顯示,,應(yīng)OpenAI的要求,爆料此次閉門(mén)會(huì)議的賬號(hào)已經(jīng)關(guān)閉,,但這并沒(méi)有阻止人工智能界深入分析這位有影響力的CEO的(所謂的)言論。
一個(gè)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)存檔網(wǎng)站已經(jīng)保存了一份原博客的副本,,之后文章內(nèi)容在社交媒體和程序員聚集的多個(gè)論壇上廣泛傳播,。人工智能專(zhuān)家拉扎·哈畢比在博客中寫(xiě)道,,阿爾特曼表示,OpenAI無(wú)法買(mǎi)到足夠多運(yùn)行人工智能應(yīng)用需要使用的專(zhuān)用計(jì)算機(jī)芯片圖形處理單元(GPU),,這阻礙了公司的短期計(jì)劃,,也為使用OpenAI服務(wù)的開(kāi)發(fā)者帶來(lái)了麻煩。哈畢比是Humanloop公司的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼CEO,。哈畢比的初創(chuàng)公司位于倫敦,,該公司率先提出了提高大語(yǔ)言模型訓(xùn)練效率的方法。大語(yǔ)言模型是OpenAI ChatGPT使用的基礎(chǔ)技術(shù),。
GPU荒導(dǎo)致OpenAI更難支持用戶(hù)通過(guò)大語(yǔ)言模型推送更多數(shù)據(jù),,并延緩了公司發(fā)布更多功能和服務(wù)的計(jì)劃。該公司的ChatGPT等產(chǎn)品均以大語(yǔ)言模型作為核心,。此外,,博客中表示,芯片荒還降低了OpenAI現(xiàn)有服務(wù)的速度和可靠性,,這會(huì)令客戶(hù)不滿(mǎn),,使他們不愿意基于OpenAI的技術(shù)開(kāi)發(fā)企業(yè)應(yīng)用。OpenAI在生成式人工智能繁榮中的先行者優(yōu)勢(shì),,也會(huì)因?yàn)樾酒?yīng)緊張而面臨威脅,,因?yàn)楣雀瑁℅oogle)和其他知名度較低的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手都有能力推出競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性服務(wù),而且開(kāi)源競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手已經(jīng)進(jìn)一步站穩(wěn)腳跟,。
關(guān)于“語(yǔ)境窗口”
阿爾特曼列舉了OpenAI因?yàn)橛布ㄈ缧酒┒倘睙o(wú)法開(kāi)展的多項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù),。哈畢比在博客中寫(xiě)道,其中包括向其GPT大語(yǔ)言模型的大多數(shù)客戶(hù)提供更長(zhǎng)的“語(yǔ)境窗口”,。語(yǔ)境窗口決定了在模型中輸入一條提示詞可以調(diào)用的數(shù)據(jù)數(shù)量,,以及模型的響應(yīng)時(shí)間。大多數(shù)GPT-4用戶(hù)的語(yǔ)境窗口支持的標(biāo)記數(shù)量為8,000個(gè)(一個(gè)標(biāo)記是人工智能模型進(jìn)行預(yù)測(cè)所依據(jù)的一段數(shù)據(jù),,相當(dāng)于約一個(gè)半英文單詞),。OpenAI在3月宣布為其模型的精選客戶(hù)提供支持32,000個(gè)標(biāo)記的語(yǔ)境窗口,但很少有用戶(hù)能夠使用該功能,,哈畢比的博客稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼將此歸咎于GPU短缺。
全球大多數(shù)人工智能應(yīng)用在GPU上訓(xùn)練和運(yùn)行,。GPU作為一種計(jì)算機(jī)芯片,,通過(guò)高速并行處理進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)分析。大多數(shù)GPU芯片來(lái)自一家公司,,那就是英偉達(dá)(Nvidia),而且售價(jià)可能高達(dá)數(shù)千甚至數(shù)十萬(wàn)美元,。市場(chǎng)觀察家已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn),,由于英偉達(dá)與生成式人工智能繁榮的關(guān)聯(lián),,其股價(jià)暴漲,而且其市值最近突破了1萬(wàn)億美元,。
哈畢比在博客中爆料,OpenAI聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼CEO還向開(kāi)發(fā)者保證,,除了ChatGPT以外,,OpenAI沒(méi)有計(jì)劃發(fā)布任何面向消費(fèi)者的產(chǎn)品,。哈畢比稱(chēng),,許多參會(huì)的開(kāi)發(fā)者告訴阿爾特曼,他們對(duì)于使用OpenAI的人工智能模型進(jìn)行開(kāi)發(fā)感到擔(dān)心,,因?yàn)闊o(wú)法確定OpenAI是否會(huì)發(fā)布競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性產(chǎn)品,。阿爾特曼表示,,ChatGPT將是其唯一一款面向消費(fèi)者的產(chǎn)品,,而且公司的未來(lái)愿景是成為一款“超級(jí)智能的工作助手”,,但OpenAI“不會(huì)涉足”許多需要使用GPT大語(yǔ)言模型的行業(yè)特定應(yīng)用,。
阿爾特曼還表示,他一個(gè)月前所說(shuō)的“超大規(guī)模模型的時(shí)代”將要結(jié)束的觀點(diǎn)被錯(cuò)誤解讀,。他對(duì)開(kāi)發(fā)者表示,他想要表達(dá)的意思是,,OpenAI最強(qiáng)大的大語(yǔ)言模型GPT-4的規(guī)模已經(jīng)足夠龐大,,因此公司不可能繼續(xù)快速擴(kuò)大人工智能系統(tǒng)的規(guī)模,。他在倫敦會(huì)議上表示,,OpenAI會(huì)繼續(xù)創(chuàng)建更大的模型,,但它們的規(guī)模只會(huì)有GPT-4的兩倍或三倍,而不是擴(kuò)大數(shù)百萬(wàn)倍,。
爆料稱(chēng),阿爾特曼在與開(kāi)發(fā)者的對(duì)話中,,還分享了OpenAI的近期發(fā)展規(guī)劃,。哈畢比的博客稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼表示,在2023年,,OpenAI的目標(biāo)是提高GPT-4的運(yùn)行速度和降低其成本,,提供更長(zhǎng)的“語(yǔ)境窗口”以支持用戶(hù)向OpenAI的GPT模型中輸入更多數(shù)據(jù)并獲得更長(zhǎng)的輸出結(jié)果,,推出更方便客戶(hù)根據(jù)具體使用案例調(diào)整GPT-4的方法,,并支持ChatGPT及其大語(yǔ)言模型能夠保留歷史對(duì)話記憶,從而使用戶(hù)想要繼續(xù)未完成的對(duì)話或重復(fù)與模型的互動(dòng)時(shí),,不需要每次都要重復(fù)按照相同的順序輸入提示。
阿爾特曼表示,,公司明年的工作重點(diǎn)是發(fā)布GPT-4根據(jù)輸入的圖片輸出結(jié)果的能力。OpenAI在3月發(fā)布該模型時(shí)演示了這項(xiàng)功能,,但尚未向大多數(shù)客戶(hù)開(kāi)放,。
哈畢比寫(xiě)道,在監(jiān)管方面,,阿爾特曼對(duì)開(kāi)發(fā)者表示,,他并不認(rèn)為現(xiàn)有模型帶來(lái)了任何嚴(yán)重的風(fēng)險(xiǎn),,而且“對(duì)現(xiàn)有模型進(jìn)行監(jiān)管或者禁用將是嚴(yán)重的錯(cuò)誤”,。阿爾特曼重申了他公開(kāi)的立場(chǎng),,即OpenAI認(rèn)同開(kāi)源人工智能軟件的重要性,,并證實(shí)了科技刊物《The Information》關(guān)于OpenAI正在將其某一款模型開(kāi)源的報(bào)道,。博客稱(chēng),,阿爾特曼表示,,公司可能將其GPT-3模型開(kāi)源,但到目前為止之所以沒(méi)有這樣做,,是因?yàn)榘柼芈皯岩捎卸嗌賯€(gè)人和公司有能力托管和服務(wù)”大語(yǔ)言模型。
據(jù)稱(chēng)阿爾特曼在閉門(mén)會(huì)議上表示,,OpenAI仍在分析OpenAI Plus的用戶(hù)希望如何使用這款插件,。該插件支持大語(yǔ)言模型使用其他軟件,。哈畢比在博客中表示,,這可能意味著這款插件尚未達(dá)到產(chǎn)品與市場(chǎng)契合的程度,,因此在短期內(nèi)不會(huì)通過(guò)OpenAI的API向企業(yè)客戶(hù)發(fā)布,。
哈畢比和OpenAI并未立即回復(fù)《財(cái)富》雜志的置評(píng)請(qǐng)求。
哈畢比的博客在社交媒體和開(kāi)發(fā)者論壇上引起了激烈討論,。許多人表示,,阿爾特曼的言論證明了GPU荒問(wèn)題對(duì)于釋放大語(yǔ)言模型的商業(yè)潛力的重要性,。也有人表示,,這證明了來(lái)自開(kāi)源人工智能社區(qū)的許多創(chuàng)新對(duì)于人工智能未來(lái)的重要性,。開(kāi)源社區(qū)開(kāi)發(fā)的創(chuàng)新途徑,,可以使用更少算力和更少數(shù)據(jù),,實(shí)現(xiàn)與規(guī)模最大的專(zhuān)有人工智能模型類(lèi)似的性能。
Signal基金會(huì)(Signal Foundation)的總裁,、大型科技公司的主要批評(píng)者梅雷迪思·惠特克在柏林召開(kāi)的一次會(huì)議上接受場(chǎng)邊采訪時(shí)表示,,這篇博客表明,全球最大的科技公司扼制了當(dāng)前人工智能軟件的基礎(chǔ),,因?yàn)橹挥羞@些大公司有實(shí)力提供訓(xùn)練最大規(guī)模的人工智能模型所需要的計(jì)算資源和數(shù)據(jù)。她說(shuō)到:“看得出來(lái),,盡管OpenAI能夠使用微軟(Microsoft)的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施,,但對(duì)其約束最大的因素是GPU?!彼岬降氖荗penAI與微軟的合作。到目前為止,,微軟在來(lái)自舊金山的人工智能初創(chuàng)公司OpenAI投資了130億美元,。 “你必須有超級(jí)昂貴的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施才能這樣做,。”她表示,,人們不要誤以為開(kāi)源人工智能社區(qū)存在,,就代表“行業(yè)格局是真正民主化和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性的”。 (財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
《財(cái)富》駐柏林記者大衛(wèi)·邁爾為本文做出了貢獻(xiàn),。
翻譯:劉進(jìn)龍
審校:汪皓
Shortages of the specialized computer chips needed to run its artificial intelligence software are holding back OpenAI’s business, and the company has no intention of releasing a consumer-facing product beyond ChatGPT. Those are just two of the disclosures OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman reportedly made to a group of software developers and startup CEOs at a private meeting in London two weeks ago, according to a blog post written by one of the participants. The account of the closed-door meeting, reportedly attended by about 20 people, was later taken down at OpenAI’s request, according to a note appended to the page where it initially appeared, but that hasn’t stopped the A.I. community from poring over the influential CEO’s (alleged) comments.
An internet archiving site had already saved a copy of the original blog post, and it has since circulated on social media and several coder-oriented discussion boards. Altman said OpenAI’s inability to access enough graphics processing units (GPUs), the specialized computer chips used to run A.I. applications, is delaying OpenAI’s short-term plans and causing problems for developers using OpenAI’s services, according to the blog post penned by Raza Habib, an A.I. expert who is also the cofounder and CEO of Humanloop. Habib’s London-based startup has pioneered methods to make the training of large language models, such as those that underpin OpenAI’s ChatGPT, more efficient.
The shortage of GPUs has made it harder for OpenAI to let users push more data through the large language models that underpin its software, such as ChatGPT, and slowed the company’s planned rollout of additional features and services. It has also made OpenAI’s existing services slower and less reliable, according to the blog post, a fact that is frustrating customers and making them reluctant to build enterprise applications on top of OpenAI’s technology. The chip supply crunch has risked OpenAI’s first-mover advantage in the generative A.I. boom, as Google—as well as lesser-known rivals—has been able to roll out competing services, and open-source competitors have gained a greater foothold.
All about the ‘context window’
Altman laid out several things that OpenAI just can’t do yet because it lacks the hardware (i.e., the chips). These include providing a longer “context window” to most customers of its GPT large language models, Habib wrote in his blog post. The context window determines how much data can be used in a single prompt that is fed into the model and how long the model’s response can be. Most users of GPT-4 have a context window that is 8,000 tokens long (a token is a segment of data on which the underlying A.I. model makes a prediction, equivalent to about one and a half words of English). OpenAI announced a 32,000-token window for select users of the model in March, but few users have been granted access to that feature, a fact Altman blamed on the lack of GPUs, Habib wrote.
The majority of the world’s A.I. applications are trained and run on GPUs, a kind of computer chip that is designed to crunch data using parallel processing at high speeds. Most of those chips are made by just one company, Nvidia, and can cost thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Market watchers already know that Nvidia’s stock has soared due to its association with the boom in generative A.I., and its market valuation recently crossed the $1 trillion threshold.
The OpenAI cofounder and CEO also reportedly assured the developers that OpenAI has no plans to launch any consumer-facing products beyond ChatGPT, according to Habib’s post. Habib had said that many developers at the meeting told Altman they were concerned about using OpenAI’s A.I. models to build upon if OpenAI itself might later roll out competing products. Altman reportedly said ChatGPT would be its only consumer-facing product and that his vision for its future was as a “super smart assistant for work” but that many industry-specific cases involving the underlying GPT large language models OpenAI “wouldn’t touch.”
Altman also reportedly said that comments he had a month ago about “the era of giant models” being over had been wrongly interpreted. The OpenAI chief told developers that he only meant to say that given how large GPT-4, OpenAI’s most powerful large language model, already is, it would not be possible to continue to scale up A.I. systems exponentially. He told the London meeting that OpenAI would continue to create larger models, but they would be only two or three times bigger than GPT-4, not millions of times larger.
In the conversation with developers, Altman also reportedly laid out OpenAI’s near-term road map. Within 2023, Altman said OpenAI’s goals were to make GPT-4 faster and cheaper, provide a longer “context window” to allow people to feed OpenAI’s GPT models more data and receive longer outputs, roll out an easier way to fine-tune GPT-4 for specific customer use cases, and also allow ChatGPT and its underlying large language models to retain a memory of past dialogues, so that one would not have to repeat the same sequence of prompts each time a person wanted to pick up a conversation where they left off or repeat a certain interaction with the model, Habib’s blog post said.
Next year, Altman reportedly said the priority would be to roll out GPT-4’s ability to receive images as inputs and outputs, a feature the company demonstrated when it debuted the model in March, but has not made available to most customers yet.
When it comes to regulation, Altman said to the developers that he did not think existing models posed any outsize risk and that “it would be a big mistake to regulate or ban them,” Habib wrote. Altman reiterated his public stance that OpenAI believed in the importance of open-source A.I. software and confirmed a report from the tech publication The Information that OpenAI is considering open-sourcing one of its models. According to the blog, Altman said the company might open-source its GPT-3 model and only hadn’t done so yet because Altman “was skeptical of how many individuals and companies would have the capability to host and serve” large language models.
Altman reportedly told the closed-door meeting that the company was still trying to figure out how ChatGPT Plus customers wanted to use the plugins that allow the large language model to use other software. Habib said in the blog that this probably meant that the plugins did not yet have product-market fit and would not be rolled out to enterprise customers through OpenAI’s API anytime soon.
Neither Habib nor OpenAI immediately responded to requests for comment from Fortune.
Habib’s blog post inspired heated discussion on social media and developer forums. Many said Altman’s comments showed just how much of a problem the lack of GPUs is for realizing the business potential of large language models. Other said it showed just how vital many of the innovations emanating from the open-source A.I. community—which has developed innovative ways to achieve similar performance to some of the largest proprietary A.I. models using much less computing power and much less data—are to the technology’s future.
Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal Foundation and a leading critic of Big Tech, interviewed on the sidelines of a conference in Berlin, said the blog post showed the stranglehold that the world’s largest technology companies hold over the foundations of today’s A.I. software because only these companies can afford the computing resources and data needed to train the largest A.I. models. “What you see is that the primary constraint, even with access to Microsoft’s infrastructure, is GPUs,” she said, referring to OpenAI’s close partnership with Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion into the San Francisco A.I. startup to date. “You need incredibly expensive infrastructure to be able to do this.” She said people should not confuse the fact that an open-source A.I. community exists “with an actually democratic and competitive landscape.”
Fortune reporter David Meyer in Berlin contributed reporting to this story.