Developer Iain Kay created a parody script, RAM-Altman, inspired by Sam Altman’s comments about PC memory usage.
The script emails a daily status report if a user’s system reports over 10 percent free RAM, mocking Altman’s stance that it is inefficient for large amounts of DRAM to sit in personal computers and be used only a small fraction of the time.
The RAM-Altman project allows users to send automated emails to the OpenAI CEO when their available RAM exceeds the 10 percent threshold. Altman made the remarks during an October 29 episode of the Cheeky Pint podcast, suggesting that from a global allocation perspective, it is “quite terrible” for people to have a lot of the world’s limited supply of DRAM in their computers that is used 5 percent of the time.
According to The Verge, Altman also said, “A lot of people want local inference. Kay describes the project as a parody and notes that Altman’s temporary change of his X display name to “RAM Altman” was “objectively excellent and where the project gets its name.”
The GitHub project provides a Bash script for Linux users to clone and run. It includes a dry-run option that allows users to preview the generated joke email without sending it. When the script detects more than 10 percent free RAM, it generates an email with subject “Unused RAM detected in the wild.” A sample email reads: “Hi Sam, Daily status report: Total RAM: 14.9 GiB Available: 4.9 GiB (33.1%) Threat level: someone at OpenAI might notice Stay allocated, A concerned RAM owner.”
The script can be installed by running git clone https://github.com/IainKay/ram-altman.git, then cd ram-altman and chmod +x ram-altman.sh test-ram-altman.sh. On a Fedora 44 KDE machine with 16 GiB of physical memory, the system reports 14.9 GiB of total usable RAM after the kernel and firmware allocations. A test run on this machine showed 10.0 GiB used and 4.9 GiB available (33.1 percent).
but only because…i actually do want the world to have tons of memory and people to put as much as they want in their computers, and it is fucking annoying that this was taken out of context. i have been arguing for the world to ramp up memory production for a long time.
The project’s GitHub page concedes a key nuance: Altman was referring to how much time memory is utilized, while the script measures how much capacity is free at a single point in time. The creator advises that the “–dry-run is the best way to enjoy this” to prevent the joke from becoming a harassment tool.
The script does not include anyone’s email address, and users are encouraged to use their own and honor requests to stop. Sample emails generated by the script are also available on the ram-altman.lol project website.
