Altman calls Musk’s space data center plans – Business News
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed the concept of data facilities in space being a viable option within the subsequent few years as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk pursues their deployment.
“I honestly think the idea with the current landscape of putting data centers in space is ridiculous,” Altman mentioned in an interview with Indian Express. “It will make sense someday.”
Altman mentioned that space-based artificial intelligence (AI) data center tasks must deal with high launch prices in addition to operational and upkeep challenges, like how to repair a damaged or broken element whereas the data center is in orbit.
“We are not there yet. There will come a time. Orbital data centers are not something that’s going to matter at scale this decade,” Altman mentioned within the interview.
SpaceX’s Musk mentioned earlier this month at an occasion saying SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI that the vitality calls for of AI will require transferring data facilities to space as a result of of the pressure it places on the setting.
“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Musk mentioned. “My estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space.”
Musk’s SpaceX filed with the FCC to launch 1 million satellites for orbital data facilities. AP
SpaceX’s merger with xAI, the AI company Musk based that went on to amass the X social media platform, goals to create a more than $1 trillion company forward of a deliberate initial public offering that can allow them raise capital and pace up plans to deploy data facilities in space.
SpaceX not too long ago filed a doc with the Federal Communications Commission requesting to launch up to 1 million satellites that will perform as data facilities in Earth’s orbit.
Musk mentioned in a memo outlining his plans that SpaceX goals to put a million tons of satellites into orbit per yr with 100 kilowatts of compute energy per ton, including 100 gigawatts of AI computing capability per yr.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed space data facilities as ‘ridiculous’ for the following few years. Photothek by way of Getty Images
Other tech firms pursuing space-based data facilities embody Google, as CEO Sundar Pichai advised “Fox News Sunday” that the company may put solar-powered data facilities in space as quickly as subsequent yr as half of what’s referred to as Project Suncatcher.
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman mentioned on the Cisco AI Summit earlier this month, “there are not enough rockets to launch a million satellites yet, so we’re, like, pretty far from that.”
“If you think about the cost of getting a payload in space today, it’s massive,” Garman added. “It is just not economical.”
