alt Hacker NewsI’m not usually one to ask this because learning to do a thing can be fun, but why exactly have you spent 25 thousand dollars on getting an LLM someone else made to answer maths exam questions?
Replies
One year ago finetuned local LLMs had a significant edge over ChatGPT or Claude. Look up in YouTube all the DIY videos testing LLMs on their own machines with different setups.
Remember: one year showed up to be a gigantic leap in regards to quality of results and innovation in the AI space. Agents weren't really a thing and vibe coding wasn't even invented as a term because the top notch tools at the time were lousy, with lovable being the frontrunner with its - in my view - sorry Tailwind recombination tool shaming AI to do the work.
Then fall hit 2025 hit us, new year's eve and suddenly there was such a massive surge of innovation and competition with ChatGPT Codex suddenly showing up.
Remember: one year ago many now commonly used tools weren't yet available like Nano Banana or Codex.
"The 25k are so vast" - Yes, and no. For example, if the machine is bought for business usage I can deduct the costs from taxes. This roughly amount for 50% of the financial burden.
So I jokingly use to say, that I pay only half the price for my Apple business machines. And yes, I am strict in this regard. Business means business. No private emails etc. nothing on my company computers.
Maybe there are other options as well to reduce the financial expenses the dude mentions, but it doesn't seem so.
I would also go for leasing, this way already the monthly payments can be deduced and I don't need to buy and maybe resell the machine.
Apple is a luxury good. Without business usage or at least partly using it for business as well as private (mixed usage in tax reports) I wouldn't buy the devices or think twice.
Apple under Cook evolved into a Gucci like luxury brand, that is more and more a rip off than quality delivered, especially considering the latest OS updates for Mac, iOS and iPad. Apple is a mess, following Microsoft Windows' footsteps happily, because the CEO is as has been correctly assessed, no product guy.
But I stop with my rant here.
Always try to use tax deduction as leverage for your computer expenses. Every citizen should invest in basic knowledge about that.
Even a 10-20% professional usage for work (mixed usage) gives you a noticeable advantage over normal pay.
Privacy and offline operation are valuable or non-negotiable in some cases, but the difference is pretty categorical between what can run on a single card and what can run on a DGX GB200 NVL72 cabinet. Doesn't mean it's not worth seeing how far local models can be pushed. Not every problem needs a senior engineer.
It's just a project I'm working on. I'm working on projects where AIs are processing and classifying large amounts of data that would be a lot of work for humans to do.
That hardware is costing him ~1$/hour over 3 years. Presumably having it answer math questions was a tiny fraction of what he was using it for.
I’ve spent twice that on hosting movies and tv for Plex, so… I think they are worthy of my praise. What a healthy outlet for money.
The cost is obviously not that big of factor for OP as it might be for others. It's actually refreshing to hear the candid viewpoint that he expresses here.