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Comment by tshadley | Hacker News Reader

Archived 2012 discussion invokes Oxford English Dictionary to trace the original use back several 100 years. http://www.techwr-l.com/archives/1206/techwhirl-1206-00295.h...

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In those examples, however, the meaning is, in current usage, 'calculation' or 'computation', not as a measure of computational work.

> In those examples, however, the meaning is, in current usage, 'calculation' or 'computation', not as a measure of computational work.

So is the OP:

"We’re releasing an analysis showing that since 2012, the amount of compute [amount of calculation, amount of computation] used in the largest AI training runs has been increasing exponentially with a 3.5 month-doubling time "

Without loss of meaning, title could be AI and Calculation, or AI and Computation

To be clearer, I should have written 'a calculation' and 'a computation', as in the examples of the older usage, 'compute' is a singular noun, referring to a specific calculation, and the acceptability of substituting, under current usage, 'compute' for 'computation' here (where the latter is shorthand for computational work or effort, rather than referring to a specific calculation), has no bearing on the usage five centuries ago - and nor does the usage five centuries ago have any particular relevance for today, given how much computation has changed since then.

I think compute stands in for computing power so `amount of compute' to me means `amount of computing power'. If I were to use the terms calculation or computation I'd pluralise them so you'd get `amount of calculations' and `amount of computations' from `amount of compute'.

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