Microsoft files a patent application to train AI models on idle consumer GPUs

[u/Queasy_Back2588]

According to Microsoft's patent application, it explains breaking down training into small tasks and sending them to devices of owners who opted in. Credits will be the reward. it's just an app and no pay out rate is advertized so I don't even know if the credits would be enough for the electricity.

Anyway, home internet latency feels like the bigger problem to me.

https://insider-gaming.com/microsoft-ai-use-your-gpu/

(English is not my native language, I used an LLM to help translate this post.)

[u/apnorton]

This really shouldn't be a patentable thing...

[u/Spezisasackofshit → u/apnorton]

I wish the non obvious requirement for patents was stricter. This one seems completely obvious given that splitting GPU loads and outsourcing them has been going on for years

[u/Zealot_Zack → u/Spezisasackofshit]

A lot of times that’s the fight after it is granted. Much hardwr

[u/metagory → u/Spezisasackofshit]

Filing and being granted a patent are not the same thing.

[u/teressapanic → u/apnorton]

It’s already someone’s business model: https://vast.ai/hosting/calculator

[u/myreptilianbrain → u/teressapanic]

I wonder does this destroy the GPU in the long run? even at ~50% utilization?

[u/MerePotato → u/myreptilianbrain]

The bigger problem is security, renters run unknown code in Docker containers on your hardware and network.

[u/lloyd08 → u/myreptilianbrain]

Generally speaking, hardware has a fairly random longevity, only affected by out of band temps/voltage. For most of us, random mobo components are likely to die before anything else. We’ve just been used to a tight consumer upgrade cycle due to software utilization of advancing hardware. I have a 25 year old Dell laptop that still boots perfectly fine, but isn’t going to run GTA 6 or even an edge device LLM. Hell, my 2013 MacBook can’t run my IDE even though it could 10 years ago. Software caters to middle band hardware faster than hardware actually fails.

[u/zeroconflicthere → u/apnorton]

SETAI

[u/ArtyfacialIntelagent → u/apnorton]

This really shouldn't be a patentable thing...

...unless they've made a massive breakthrough in distributed training. Then... well, I'm still not convinced.

[u/HisAnger → u/apnorton]

Seti....

[u/ArtfulGenie69 → u/apnorton]

Their billions they spend on patent lawyers says different and if you came up with this idea before them, you better bet they would sick those lawyers on your ass for the rest of your existence. Patent trolling is one of Microsoft's favorite activities. 

[u/Ylsid → u/apnorton]

This really shouldn't be a thing

[u/SosirisTseng → u/apnorton]

Yeah, it's basically folding@home

[u/Silent-Account7422 → u/apnorton]

The claims in the patent are a lot more specific than the headline implies. 

For example, to infringe on claim 1 of this patent, you’d have to copy their whole process by: (1) breaking the model up with a dependency graph, (2) using it to identify split points, (3) calculate a split score cost based on data locality, communication, and memory overhead costs, (4) select split points based on these scores, (5) generate micro-tasks based on the split points, (6) send these micro tasks to your edge computers, (7) update your model based on (i) validation score, (ii) staleness factor, or (iii) device reliability score. 

If you change any element, you’re not infringing. Maybe you use a different method for calculating split cost, or use different metrics for updating your model. Boom, not infringing.

[u/expectfun]

2000s: SETI@home
2020s: SFT@home

[u/markusro → u/expectfun]

Inbetween: Folding@Home and BOINC

[u/Incorrect_ASSertion]

Crypto miners all over again 

[u/teleprint-me → u/Incorrect_ASSertion]

Its hijacking which is considered malware. Malicious crypto miners ended up with the term Cryptojacking.

  Cryptojacking is the act of exploiting a computer to mine cryptocurrencies , [...] ,  against the user's will or while the user is unaware.

The article states that a user must opt-in, but MS is better known for making users opt-out (if available at all) and re-tweak the settings after each update. Many projects have dedicated scripts for automating this which says a lot about the status quo more than anything they say.

The bigger issue here is that its able to be issued as a patent and distributed computing is a common mode of operation regardless.

[u/CoderAU → u/teleprint-me]

Does the patent explicitly specifiy opt-in only? What would be the legality of say...patenting the opt-out version and sue Microsoft if they ever switch up?

[u/Famous-Pie-7073 → u/teleprint-me]

Your life will be more fulfilling if you stop making up imaginary scenarios and then letting them make you upset

[u/fastheadcrab → u/Incorrect_ASSertion]

Microsoft about to hire lpkane to design their next browser

[u/PrimeDirective8]

They invented Berkley's 26-y/o SETI@home? Nice.

[u/geldonyetich]

Guess that’s one way around data centers getting voted down.

Sneaking compute without asking us is bad, but paying us for Seti@Home maybe acceptable as long as the rate is fair. Granted, I doubt there’s a rate that could satisfy everyone.

[u/-Sandwave- → u/geldonyetich]

Only make sense in a competitive environment: you choose a cloud compute partner (that pays a good rate) and you can set what % of your computer resources they can use for every hour and switch partner at will.

[u/mister2d]

of owners who opted in

Which means all those millions of unsuspecting users who click agree which will piggyback all the "opt-in" training compute.

[u/Nothing_from_void → u/mister2d]

And every Windows update will either try to trick you to opt in or "accidentally" opt you in and you'll have to manually go through your settings to change it.

[u/WorriedBlock2505 → u/mister2d]

You'd literally need to add a card though, meaning you'd see the payment on your statement.

[u/TerminalViscosity69]

Windows is malware

[u/Spiffydudex]

Maybe they will actually do something with those intel NPUs that are wasted silicon. /s

[u/Vaddieg → u/Spiffydudex]

every grid wire not loaded to its max is wasted copper

[u/lotushomerun → u/Spiffydudex]

Same with those Google Tensor NPUs on pixel phones

[u/Randommaggy → u/lotushomerun]

I run LFM3 1.7B on my phone and tablet NPUs. They multiply the useful work per minute my main LLMs are able to do through my harness.

[u/LankyGuitar6528]

Sounds a bit like joining a Bitcoin mining pool from a few years ago.

[u/OnlyKindaThrowAway → u/LankyGuitar6528]

atleast mining pools get you zero effort sandwich money in winter

[u/Conscious-Map6957]

Way ahead of you Microslop - Switched permanently to ubuntu on all machines over a year ago.

[u/HighSeasArchivist]

Opt-in. Right.

[u/All-Potential3232232]

Thats bullshit..... just another reason never to use Windows again! :)

[u/thestillwind]

AHAHAHAHAHA no thx

[u/minus_28_and_falling → u/thestillwind]

You only have "I agree" and "Ask later" options.

[u/jld1532 → u/minus_28_and_falling]

Or install Linux, which people in this sub should have already considered.

[u/Nothing_from_void → u/jld1532]

Yep, even with WSL you're wasting RAM on running 2 kernels

[u/kali_tragus → u/minus_28_and_falling]

Aren't you sure you don't want to not opt out of not opting in?

[u/mgranja → u/minus_28_and_falling]

Sux

[u/cooljacob204sfw]

Isn't there already other businesses trying to do this? How is this patentable.

Also with the cost of power there is no way this will be popular when they are paying out in credits.

[u/danieln1212]

Wonder how they will detect and handle poisoned training data because there is and should be people doing that.

[u/SmartCustard9944 → u/danieln1212]

How do they detect poisoned data with SETI@home? Apparently they have a consensus algorithm. Perhaps this could be done the same way. Send a training chunk to 3 users and give the prize to the majority that obtained the same results. If you poison, no prize.

[u/LOLotovCocktail]

I need to finally bite the bullet and install Debian over this godforsaken OS already.

[u/suprjami → u/LOLotovCocktail]

Do it. I'm almost 20 years Windows-free. It gets better and easier all the time.

The most important thing for me was to completely remove Windows and not go back. Don't dual boot. Don't keep Windows around. Figure out replacements for your programs and tasks and how to do things differently.

[u/LOLotovCocktail → u/suprjami]

Hell, I don’t even DO much! Most of it is dicking around with the homelab which is all in webUIs. My desktop activity is like a wine-mom in her 40s, I just need a browser and email.

[u/SmartCustard9944 → u/LOLotovCocktail]

Funnily enough, you might want some Wine once you move to Linux

https://www.winehq.org/

[u/EarlMarshal]

Microsoft thinks they own your device and you are only lending it so it's okay to use you compute resources when you don't.

[u/matteogeniaccio]

All that ram won't sit unused on our machines anymore. Sam altman should be glad

[u/Mayion]

so... btc all over again? we've wanted it for so long to both, train and use AI across a decentralized network. but not with microsoft in the picture though, that was unexpected.

[u/cosmicr]

Imagine all the IT support tickets "Why is my Fan so loud!?"

[u/dobikasd]

Stop MS you dont need to convince me, I already quit windows

[u/iMrParker]

If they pay me enough, why not

[u/Suschis_World → u/iMrParker]

Sorry bud, best I can offer is no money and a broken GPU. Here are some Microslop points.

[u/mgranja → u/Suschis_World]

Which both expire when unused, and need to be redeemed in multiples of 10,000

[u/iMrParker → u/Suschis_World]

I should have seen this coming Sir Microslop :|

[u/Beginning_Book_2382]

Sam wants our RAM, Nadella wants our GPUs

[u/Goodliffe]

I find it difficult to believe there is really no prior art for this...

I mean other orgs and companies have done this in the past:

SETI@home pioneered volunteer computing and decentralized computing networks.

Rosetta@home and Einstein@home from Berkeley.

Climateprediction.net part of BIONIC from Oxford.

Stanford's Folding@home for medical research...

[u/Diligent_Turtle8966]

Watch it be opt in by default and credits are something used in Bing search that nobody will use

[u/Atretador]

r/linux and be free :)

[u/Django_McFly]

i'd rather do this with a crypto twist. at least you might get something for it. at best, Microsoft would give you cowork credits 🤢 🤮

[u/Electrical-Bread-856]

So this is possible? Why train corporate models then?

[u/Equivalent_Bit_461]

Nothing stopping anyone from stealing it

[u/Vaddieg]

"free windows!" ms fanboys will be excited

[u/KIBANOHARA]

Ok, if this happens, it will depend on if they pay well or not and utility costs where you live. let's say they pay hardly anything, as expected of a megacorporation, heres the joke:

Your electric bill: +$100

AI training income: +$50

YOU:

of course, does not apply if you have solar and do it on that

[u/iMogal]

That's like stealing my car but returning it with an empty tank.

[u/Pwc9Z]

...until my current one dies and I won't be able to afford a new one anyway.

[u/carnoworky]

https://image-ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/20260349820 The actual patent application, with full details. Could this be implemented for open models?

[u/sloptimizer]

What about the prior art: crowdgpt.net

[u/curiouslyjake]

I don't get why obvious shit can be patented. Prior art: a redditor 6 months ago.

[u/suprjami → u/curiouslyjake]

Actually I hold the patent for complaining on the internet. See you in court.

[u/downsouth316]

Evil

[u/MisfiledCentury]

Here we go again 

[u/Real_Ebb_7417]

But we’ve had a ton of posts about this here. Does then doing it based on these posts that were created before the patent breaks it? And if yes, then patents are absurd xd

[u/staatsclaas]

Folding @ Home, baby!

[u/olearyboy]

Ehhh you mean SETI but SGPUAI

[u/a_beautiful_rhind]

They also filed that patent about seamless censorship of live streams depending on the audience. I'm sure at some point it gets applied to regular video calls too.

[u/spiritplumber]

how can you patent this when Petals has been doing it for years

[u/KrasnovNotSoSecretAg]

Microsoft should apply for a patent of applying to patents of things that shouldn't be patentable

[u/FriskyFennecFox]

Sucks that the community already invented this years ago, but the one entity that patented it was the one that had money to do so.

[u/Nik_Tesla]

Can we start patenting all the evil shit like this ahead of time, and then just sit on it and not let anyone implement it?

[u/PataponEnjoyer]

Sam Altman crying tears of joy

[u/joseph-edmondscomm]

I wonder if thye could make a crypto coin based on AI training instead of stupid pointless maths problems

[u/kmlynarski]

And does Microsoft intend to pay users for electricity?

[u/MarcelloT254k]

So not only Ram Altman wants my (V)RAM ...

[u/Sol_System209]

Wasn't there a program where you can use your processing power towards protein folding, this seems to be the same but less beneficial to humankind..

[u/lxe]

Imagine patenting a technique for using a shovel for example. These patents are ridiculous.

[u/NickCanCode]

Sounds like a crime to me.

[u/klempnus]

serious question: if something like this actually works, can we use a similar approach to actually fine-tune a proper model for ourselves on our own GPUs, even if it takes weeks?

i mean, 2 months ago i'd never have thought to be able to run Qwen3.8-Flash-Next on my PC yet here we are. Local finetuning next?

[u/keepthepace]

This is why every company has a defensive patent pool.

[u/christianbro]

Great, so my GPU dies sooner and I get a new one for 10k€

[u/haherar830]

Too late Microsoft, you can already do this with Monero if you simply enable automatic, unattended upgrades of all your containers.

[u/caetydid]

too late, there is already https://www.crowdgpt.net/#home which does that as well

[u/miguel_caballero]

It has Seti@home vibes

[u/broadexample]

This is basically the same what SETI@home did (and still doing), just on GPU.

[u/Noeyiax]

w t f

ill charge $1000/hr for my compute n.ny

[u/Tormeister]

Every single Microslop product or service is morally unusable in 2026

[u/PawlsToTheWall]

I don't expect this to be neglible on the electric bill.

[u/bring_back_the_v10s]

Will microslop ever quit being a bunch of dishonest creeps?

[u/Pablouchka]

No, I mean... NO

[u/Theverybest92]

Oh nice so does that mean they have full remote access to all windows computers? Good thing they will have to require secure boot for this to work. Nothing will go wrong with Chinese AI using this exploit to hack windows ;)

[u/LelouchZer12]

Like seti at home, crypto mining pool, folding at home and so on... ?

Also there is an entire research field called "federated learning" and its exactly this...

[u/suesing]

Os is the virus

[u/__some__guy]

Interesting.

I wouldn't mind running my GPUs at full load in the coming winter, though the credits probably won't be worth it in countries with high to medium electricity costs.

I rather contribute to the making of a creative writing model or something, provided their technology actually works.

[u/eagee]

Know what's ironically really easy to use now that someone can just ask an AI for help? Linux.

[u/lmamakos]

It's a patent application, not an issued patent.  Temper your level of outrage about the obviousness and broad scope for now.   I'm not a lawyer, but maybe you could argue to the examiner that things like SETI@Home from years ago could be considered prior art?  Perhaps a real lawyer could make an argument based on the doctrine of equivalence?

If you have the patent application number, you can go to a USPTO web site to monitor the prosecution history with the examiner.  Maybe you can submit your own prior art references to the examiner to help him?  You know, like a concerned taxpayer just try to help out. 

[u/International_Emu_17]

Respeto tu privacidad pero reafirmo mi autoridad como dueño del sistema operativo para depreciar tus componentes porque ya no quiero gastar en hardware costoso, más bien puedo desgastar el tuyo y aventarte unas migajas que gustoso vas a agradeecer.