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Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

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Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#61

Post by cookingrobot »

corporateslaver wrote: post #56
karimf wrote: post #45

If you guys are searching for potential early customer, maybe you can hang around on Fast.ai course forum[0]. There are a lot of people who are just trying DL for the first time, like me, and are looking for the cheapest way possible to get started experimenting. One of your selling point you said is the cheaper price, so maybe it would work out well. http://forums.fast.ai/

Please stop marketing fast.ai on hacker news

Why, it’s really good? I was going to make the same suggestion, but to compete with Paperspace they should offer an image that comes with all the course dependencies preinstalled.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#62

Post by thisisit »

> we figured out that there's a way to run Neural Network inference and crypto-mining simultaneously without hurting mining hash rate

I understand that you figured out the technical side of things but curious about the human nature side of things. Let's say currently you can have both NN and mining running. From a cryptocurrency price point of view two things can happen:

a. Prices go up - Wont the incentive change towards mining? How do you guys plan to handle such situations?

b. Prices go down - In this case, the intuitive thing to happen is that GPU pricing to get cheaper. But then, will you guys passing on such benefits to your customers? Because the whole point is to be able to make a steady income from the GPUs, mining or not.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#63

Post by davidbuniat »

thisisit wrote: post #62

> we figured out that there's a way to run Neural Network inference and crypto-mining simultaneously without hurting mining hash rate I understand that you figured out the technical side of things but curious about the human nature side of things. Let's say currently you can have both NN and mining running. From a cryptocurrency price point of view two things can happen: a. Prices go up - Wont the incentive change to…

Lets agree that if the mining price goes up, it will be always cheaper than public cloud. Otherwise, you would have run mining on AWS/GCP and be profitable. In this scenario, we are still able to offer cheaper price to the customers and higher price to the miners even by just binary switching. Assuming the gap is not negligible.

If the price goes down, customers will be able to set lower price. As long as GPU holders profit margin is high enough given electricity and maintenance costs, they will do the compute.

If the marketplace matures, pricing of mining, deep learning, rendering and other tasks will be driven by the market. At Snark AI we are working on towards creating this marketplace that will provide optimal benefits to all parties.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#64

Post by merkleforest »

hwoolery wrote: post #60
davidbuniat wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case of crypto downturn renting GPUs will be even cheaper. Actually, it will be a bigger win for our users and also for us.

Assuming the miners still want to rent out the hardware and not sell it :) Even then, you'd have an instance of two parties both taking slices of the profit, which is hard to compete in a practical manner against the Amazon/Google

Yeah exactly. Hopefully AI computation market will grow big in time so those crypto-miners can pivot into more profitable business of GPU cloud for AI instead of selling the hardware in crypto downfall. In the long term, Snark AI wants to create the marketplace where all the qualified GPU providers can bid for the best market price which will benefit everyone.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#65

Post by merkleforest »

1996 wrote: post #12
harias wrote: post #9

Are you the same guy : https://www.reddit.com/r/gpumining/comments/86ofw2/rent_out_...

Then it is a copycat of nicehash. I wonder how they plan to undercut nicehash?

It's interesting that you're drawing the comparison with NiceHash. Snark AI will be a marketplace like NiceHash but targets mostly deep learning training and inference on the user end.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#66

Post by thisisit »

davidbuniat wrote: post #63
thisisit wrote: post #62

> we figured out that there's a way to run Neural Network inference and crypto-mining simultaneously without hurting mining hash rate I understand that you figured out the technical side of things but curious about the human nature side of things. Let's say currently you can have both NN and mining running. From a cryptocurrency price point of view two things can happen: a. Prices go up - Wont the incentive change to…

Lets agree that if the mining price goes up, it will be always cheaper than public cloud. Otherwise, you would have run mining on AWS/GCP and be profitable. In this scenario, we are still able to offer cheaper price to the customers and higher price to the miners even by just binary switching. Assuming the gap is not negligible. If the price goes down, customers will be able to set lower price. As long as GPU holders…

> Lets agree that if the mining price goes up, it will be always cheaper than public cloud

I am confused. Let's say your price is $x while public cloud is $x+y. When cryptocurrency price rise the incentive is to increase your price to $x+y, if that is the profit point. In which case you will no longer be cheaper than public cloud. Any differences will be negligible. So, I am not sure you can claim to be always cheaper than public cloud.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#67

Post by davidbuniat »

thisisit wrote: post #66
davidbuniat wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets agree that if the mining price goes up, it will be always cheaper than public cloud. Otherwise, you would have run mining on AWS/GCP and be profitable. In this scenario, we are still able to offer cheaper price to the customers and higher price to the miners even by just binary switching. Assuming the gap is not negligible. If the price goes down, customers will be able to set lower price. As long as GPU holders…

> Lets agree that if the mining price goes up, it will be always cheaper than public cloud I am confused. Let's say your price is $x while public cloud is $x+y. When cryptocurrency price rise the incentive is to increase your price to $x+y, if that is the profit point. In which case you will no longer be cheaper than public cloud. Any differences will be negligible. So, I am not sure you can claim to be always cheape…

Following your notation, consider our new price will be $x+y', where y' is the mining price difference.

You are right my claim that y'"gap is not negligible" - means if y' gets near to y, then y will get even higher and there will be always a market gap, which I think you disagree with.

Based on your suggestion, on extreme scenario I would soften my claim to y'=<y, without us making profit. :)

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#68

Post by supersergiy »

thisisit wrote: post #62

> we figured out that there's a way to run Neural Network inference and crypto-mining simultaneously without hurting mining hash rate I understand that you figured out the technical side of things but curious about the human nature side of things. Let's say currently you can have both NN and mining running. From a cryptocurrency price point of view two things can happen: a. Prices go up - Wont the incentive change to…

We aim to have the customers easily switch between snark and mining. Given that the rewards for mining on platforms such as Bitcoin half every 4 years, the mining incentives go down and tips become the popular form of earning. The evolution of this is not well understood but tips might not exceed the average size of transactions, of which we're on the better side.

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#69

Post by stealthcat »

corporateslaver wrote: post #56
karimf wrote: post #45

If you guys are searching for potential early customer, maybe you can hang around on Fast.ai course forum[0]. There are a lot of people who are just trying DL for the first time, like me, and are looking for the cheapest way possible to get started experimenting. One of your selling point you said is the cheaper price, so maybe it would work out well. http://forums.fast.ai/

Please stop marketing fast.ai on hacker news

Please elaborate.

AFAIK they promote their Pytorch wrapper in their course instead of using pure Pytorch. Anything else?

Re: Launch HN: Snark AI (YC S18) – Distributed Low-Cost GPUs for Deep Learning

#70

Post by merkleforest »

cookingrobot wrote: post #61
corporateslaver wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please stop marketing fast.ai on hacker news

Why, it’s really good? I was going to make the same suggestion, but to compete with Paperspace they should offer an image that comes with all the course dependencies preinstalled.

Thanks for the suggestion! Snark AI will offer a pod type with all fast.ai course dependencies installed and easy jupyter notebook access.
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