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.
The data centers still have more compute, they have more money and regular people are being priced out of hardware because of datacenter demand, and they already had more to begin with. The question is whether the market demand for that compute is effectively unlimited, or if there’s a point of diminishing returns. If the former, then no amount of crowdsourcing would be able to make datacenters obsolete because home computers cannot satisfy the demand on their own. If the latter, then yeah it is possible.
If we get to a point where anything you’d really want AI for can be achieved with a smaller model and more powerful stuff is niche and rarely needed, then data center compute may become obsolete. Local models are already very useful and good enough is good enough.