This is probably the single most important thing to make frontier models usable right now, so I'm happy there seems to be some progress. This was the previous Gemini's biggest problem IMO
335 karma · joined March 19, 2022
This is probably the single most important thing to make frontier models usable right now, so I'm happy there seems to be some progress. This was the previous Gemini's biggest problem IMO
> Indeed, the algorithm requires you to multiply complex numbers whose magnitudes grow superpolynomially with n. If you stored these numbers as bits, the memory requirement would effectively be exponential in the input length. It assumes you can multiply such arbitrarily large complex numbers together in a single operation.
Another way to think about what the author said, imagine you had access to an oracle which could execute arbitrary precision arithmetic expressions in constant time. You could encode a wide range of computations in these and execute impossible algorithms.
As a side note, I don't understand why I keep seeing these wrong arguments on HN repeatedly. Like everything mentioned in this thread can easily be fact checked. Radiative cooling is solved, launch costs are going down, so power costs will pay themselves back very quickly, etc.
You can argue about specifics, like chips will get more sophisticated + power efficient and fabrication will be the true longterm bottleneck, or SMRs/fusion could reduce energy bottlenecks, but talking about cooling as if convective cooling is the only option is just nonsensical.
> this is just not true at all, there are massive leaps from algorithms, data, etc. every year. scale is one axis of many and you need to get them all correct.
this view isn't updated correctly post-claude code and codex. there will clearly be sufficient demand.
An example here is in engineering. Building a simulator for some process makes computing it much safer and consistent vs. having people redo the calculations themselves, even with AI assistance.
Another thing to consider is that transformers are very general computers. You can encode many many more complex architectures in simpler, multi layer transformers.
The main benefit is that solar panels go from a complicated mess of batteries + permitting to a very stable, highly efficient energy source.
I don't think this is true, Starlink satellites have an orbital lifetime of 5-7 years, and GPUs themselves are much more sensitive than solar panels for rad damage. I'd guess the limiting factor is GPU lifetime, so as long as your energy savings outpace the slightly faster gpu depreciation (maybe from 5 -> 3 years) plus cost of launch, it would be economical.
I've said this elsewhere, but based on my envelope math, the cost of launch is the main bottleneck and I think considerably more difficult to solve than any of the other negatives. Even shielding from radiation is a weight issue. Unfortunately all the comments here on HN are focused on the wrong, irrelevant issues like talking about convection in space.
Also this assumes a flat surface on both sides. Another commenter in this thread brought up a pyramid shape which could work.
Finally, these gpus are design for earth data centers where power is limited and heat sinks are abundant. In the case of space data centers you can imagine we get better radiators or silicon that runs hotter. Crypto miners often run asics very hot.
I just don't understand why every time this topic is brought up, everyone on HN wants to die on the hill that cooling is not possible. It is?? the primary issue if you do the math is clearly the cost of launch.
According to this other source https://www.satellitetoday.com/connectivity/2026/02/02/space...
the filing mentions this
> these satellites would operate between 500 km and 2,000 km altitude and 30 degrees and Sun-Synchronous Orbit inclinations (SSO)