Comment by oceanplexian

1 day ago

Things can get both more expensive and cheaper at scale, hence the term.

For example (and relevant to AI) I can generate electricity on my roof at $0.20-25/kWh, batteries included. In California the electric utility can’t offer it cheaper than $0.30-0.50/kWh. Therefore at scale, electricity is actually more expensive.

There are many such examples.

Apples and Oranges. The utility uses a weird conflated fee that combines the price of the electricity and the price of connecting your house to the grid. If they split it up your marginal price per kWh would be much less.

Yeah, I think the fallacy here is the conflation of scale and centralization.

Right now, there is way more scale in centralized AI than there is at the edge. But that could flip. I'd still probably put the probability that it will under 50%. But I'd also put it above zero!