alt Hacker NewsThis is a difficult calculation to make because you wouldn't rent time on the exact same system in the cloud. Depending on what you're running, a bigger server with better inter-GPU interconnects in the cloud might complete the task so much faster that the additional per-hour expense is more than covered.
Agreed. And the gained time either goes toward 1) more experiments, or 2) leisure, which makes you sharper in the lab and happier overall. Not sure the "I saved $17,000 so far" framing is the most useful way to look at it, but it's a cool project and I love that people are doing this kind of thing.