A developer has created a tongue-in-cheek Linux script that reports unused computer memory to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, turning his comments about personal computers hoarding RAM into an ongoing joke.
Called Ram-Altman, the script was created by developer Iain Kay and shared on GitHub. It checks a computer's available memory every five minutes and, if more than 10% of its RAM is available, sends a report once a day. The project is a satirical response to Altman's remarks about the global allocation of memory.
Ram-Altman Script Flags Unused RAM
The script is designed to email Altman with details of how much RAM a computer has available. Its messages rotate through eight subject lines, 10 different messages and six sign-offs, according to the project's GitHub page.
One sample email carries the subject line 'You missed a spot.'
It tells Altman: 'Please don't be alarmed, but there is 8.6 GiB of RAM on my desk that isn't in a data centre. That's 56.2% of what's installed here, and as far as I can tell it has no plans today.'
The message ends with 'Hoarding responsibly, a concerned RAM owner.'
However, the project does not come with Altman's email address preconfigured. Users must supply their own recipient address through the RAM_ALTMAN_TO setting, meaning the script does not automatically send reports to the OpenAI chief. Its creator also warns users against spoofing addresses or running the script across a fleet of servers.
Linux Required to Run the Project
Anyone interested in trying Ram-Altman will need a Linux system, Bash and a working email-sending utility. Windows users can run it through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), but macOS is not directly supported.
The script uses Linux's MemAvailable figure to estimate how much memory applications could claim without the system needing to swap data. That figure includes both free memory and cache that the operating system can reclaim, so it does not mean every reported gigabyte is completely idle or doing nothing.
The project sends no more than one email per day, even though it checks memory every five minutes. It is intended as a joke rather than a solution to the global DRAM shortage, and the repository explicitly says it will not help resolve the supply problem.
Altman's Comments Prompted Online Reactions
The project takes aim at comments Altman made on the Cheeky Pint podcast, where he discussed the global allocation of memory and the growing demand for DRAM.
'From a global allocation perspective, actually, it's quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer,' Altman said. He added that it was 'being used maybe 5% of the time'.
The remarks attracted criticism online, particularly as rising RAM prices have made upgrades more difficult for some consumers, according to Cybernews.
Some Reddit users responded by applying the same resource-utilisation argument to Altman's own assets. One commenter pointed to his multiple large homes and questioned whether they were being used efficiently. These were individual reactions rather than evidence of widespread public backlash.
Altman Later Clarified His Position on RAM
The GitHub project also acknowledges that Altman later clarified his comments. He wrote: 'i actually do want the world to have tons of memory and people to put as much as they want in their computers'.
He subsequently added: 'i want you to have so much ram' and 'lets build more'.
The original discussion concerned the use of memory for running AI models locally, rather than a proposal to stop consumers from buying or using RAM in their own computers.
That context does not make the Ram-Altman joke any less pointed, but it does add an important qualification to the remarks that inspired it.
