compute

What does compute mean?

Compute has long been used as a verb, with meanings such as “to determine or calculate by means of a computer” and “to determine especially by mathematical means.” The word has increasingly been used in a new way in recent years as a noun, meaning “the computational power or resources necessary for a computer or computer program to function.”

Examples of compute

“Amazon has the compute for an Alexa, so does Google [for its Home device], but OpenAI is struggling to get enough compute for ChatGPT, let alone an AI device,” a source close to Ive told the FT. “They need to fix that first.”
— Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 6 oct. 2025

But the point I want to make is not just about OpenAI: the American AI industry as a whole has been built on the premise that AGI is just around the corner. All that is needed is sufficient “compute”, i.e., millions of Nvidia AI GPUs, enough data centers and sufficient cheap electricity to do the massive statistical pattern mapping needed to generate (a semblance of) “intelligence.”
— Servaas Storm, Institute for New Economic Thinking, 2 October. 2025

If a model wants to memorize more information of the input image, it has to increase the complexity of the network, which will produce more parameters. This will be a huge burden to our compute capability.
— Chen, et al, Frontiers in Neuroscience, June 2020

Where does compute come from?

Compute has been used as a noun for hundreds of years (albeit rarely), as a synonym of computation or calculation (as in ‘a number beyond compute’). In the last decade it has increasingly been found used in reference to computers, especially in relation to cloud computing and the field of artificial intelligence.

How is compute used?

Compute is more jargon than slang. It tends to be found in technical literature or discussions about computer technology.