Post by @nfultz@awful.systems

2026-09-03 15:30 UTC

in which le gwern and sword guy neal sponsor a writing contest www.gpuworld.org Premise Imagine that AI frontier progress stops as of 1 September 2026: AI becomes faster and cheaper, but it never becomes superhuman or improves considerably across the board. So the Singularity never happens—but GPUs keep getting made. By 2040, there may be the equivalent of 8 billion GPUs globally and everyone has access to a frontier LLM. What happens in this ‘business as usual’ future? I may as well through my name in the hat, I could use the cash. but, who the hell gave them $100k for this? I guess BTC is back up.

Replies (8)

@BioMan@awful.systems 2026-09-03 17:22

I suppose my only-half-joking grant proposal I talk about with linguist friends in which you run an entire large text through a base-model LLM, extract the residual stream, and score every token according to perplexity compared to the ground truth reality in order to ask and answer super interesting questions about information theory in human communication doesn’t count?

Open ##4613620
@BurgersMcSlopshot@awful.systems 2026-09-03 17:28

s/gpu/Butt-Face Chester Cheeks/g and you got yourself a deal. “The year is 2040. Everybody has access to a Butt-Face Chester Cheeks. What happens in this butt-business as usual future?”

Open ##4613637
@froztbyte@awful.systems 2026-09-03 20:00

but, who the hell gave them $100k for this? the third name is a vc-type, and I bet it won’t take much scratching to find that linked to our good friends and the ongoing public image adjustment campaign that’s seeing funding from a few corners

Open ##4614319
@YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 2026-09-03 22:40

AI Use: LLM use is permitted, but discouraged; we remind participants that LLM use tends to reduce originality and writing quality, and the flaws are especially obvious when LLM outputs are read as a group—unskillful use of LLMs will reduce the odds of being the best entry. We request disclosure of AI use. Lol. Lmao.

Open ##4615086
@Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 2026-09-03 23:52

What the hell kind of prompt is this oh my god. I’m getting bored just contemplating the idea of trying to think up a story.

Open ##4615392
@schnoopy@awful.systems 2026-09-04 06:25

So I love Neal’s books, I think he’s a fun story-teller and anathems orbital mechanics scene has loads more tension than any slop in something like interstellar. But whenever he gets involved in social-technological commentary I am reminded of Ursala Le Guinn’s remarks on SciFi authors being professional liars, not prophets.

Open ##4616334
@mirrorwitch@awful.systems 2026-09-04 07:42

writing a story that looks like it’s about everyone having their own LLMs but it’s actually about the predicted state of clime catastrophe by 2040 and the consequences of the fascist turn in world politics, and the GPUs don’t make the slightest difference to anything and don’t really matter for the plot

Open ##4616544
@rhamph@awful.systems 2026-09-04 09:11

Turns out the only cause of inequality in the world is that there’s just too much progress. Once the Best GPU has finally been designed, it’ll just keep rolling off the production line, and those charitable manufacturers will gladly distribute them at bargain prices to all the impoverished masses. Who all have a reliable source of energy to devote to churning out slop.

Open ##4616806