AI's GPU obsession blinds us to a cheaper, smarter solution

Opinion by: Naman Kabra, co-founder and CEO of NodeOps Network

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) have become the default hardware for many AI workloads, especially when training large models. That thinking is everywhere. While it makes sense in some contexts, it’s also created a blind spot that’s holding us back.

GPUs have earned their reputation. They’re incredible at crunching massive numbers in parallel, which makes them perfect for training large language models or running high-speed AI inference. That’s why companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta spend a lot of money building GPU clusters.

While GPUs may be preferred for running AI, we cannot forget about Central Processing Units (CPUs), which are still very capable. Forgetting this could be costing us time, money, and opportunity.

CPUs aren’t outdated. More people need to realize they can be used for AI tasks. They’re sitting idle in millions of machines worldwide, capable of running