In a San Francisco hacker house, Ben wears a homemade brain-reading device while Jonathan tries to decode his thoughts using repurposed graphics cards stacked in a basement. The underground AI scene treats neural networks like a quasi-cult, training them in cramped spaces next to water heaters and gym equipment instead of corporate data centers.
San Francisco has turned into an AI cult. And this is the cult's altar. It's a homemade GPU cluster, by which I mean it's a metal container that's been filled with graphics chips. Historically, such chips have been used to run video games. But in this city, at this moment, the graphics chips are being used to run artificial intelligence software. This altar is fueling a neural network. Most GPU clusters are in large, fancy data centers. But in this city, at this moment, you can find them in basements, next to a water heater, and a few feet from a makeshift gym. So we're gonna have you come a bit closer. And you can also apparently find a laboratory and a dude named Ben with a weird contraption on his head. What does it feel like, Ben? Um, it's kind of explained. And another dude named Jonathan trying to read Ben's thoughts. Let me explain.
