If there was an AI model that ran locally on a PC for basic things and cloud sourced computer power for more complex tasks, all of these data centers would become obsolete in an instant. All of the invested capital and materials wasted in a flash.
Edit: lots of great counter points in the comments.
With how much money AI-using companies are bleeding and the AI-providing companies are still not profitable I doubt that crowd sourcing would work. People would just notice that their PC is being hammered day and night and opt out eventually.
Hypothetically, people could have an AI dedicated server, and when the AI is inactive for local tasks it helps the AI hivemind.
Too slow and I guess most people don’t have good enough computers for that.
Also what is the incentive? SETI@home was fun. AI is not fun at all.
A dedicated server that gets anywhere close to “frontier model” performance is still about 100x as expensive and power hungry as an average home PC.