Microsoft wants to pay you to train its AI. It will borrow a piece of your computer for this purpose

Training so-called artificial intelligence models requires enormous computing capacity, and tech giants are apparently forced to think about where to get it. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently drew criticism when he stated that users have too much RAM in their devices that could otherwise serve in data centers. Microsoft did not limit itself to mere words; it would like to utilize your computer’s excess performance. As patent documents revealed, it is even willing to pay you.

Big Training Sliced into Small Pieces

Microsoft filed the patent application as early as April 2025, and it was published on November 5, 2026. As described by TechPowerUp, the system would divide a large training task into small micro-tasks and distribute them to gaming PCs, laptops, and phones when they have free capacity. The size of each piece would be determined by what the specific device can handle.

Participation would be voluntary, and the user would have to explicitly opt in. The system would then record the work done and credit the account with points. According to the patent, these could be exchanged for free software, access to the trained model, or directly for money. The principle resembles projects like Folding@home, where people voluntarily lent computing power to science, or cryptocurrency mining.

Gaming Will Take Priority

To ensure training doesn’t become a burden, the system would monitor GPU and CPU utilization, memory usage, temperature, and power consumption. If the GPU is busy or getting too hot, it would check less frequently, and if limits are exceeded, it would pause or terminate the task. According to PC Games Hardware, how often the device is available would also factor into the scheduling. Furthermore, results would be cross-verified among multiple computers to prevent erroneous or falsified data from corrupting the entire model.

Is It Even Worth It?

There is no answer to that yet. The application does not specify the reward amount or supported hardware, and Microsoft has not announced any service for Windows or Xbox. VideoCardz points out that training increases power consumption, even if the computer would otherwise be idle. If a computer draws an additional 250 W for four hours a day, that amounts to 30 kWh per month. At a price of around 6 to 7 CZK per kilowatt-hour, including distribution, this is approximately 180 to 210 CZK per month, which the reward would have to cover.

Of course, other factors can also come into play, such as graphics card wear and tear, storage requirements, or data handling. And finally, it must be added that many patents are filed, and a large portion of them never turn into an actual product.

Would you lend your graphics card to Microsoft for AI training?

Sources: TechPowerUp, VideoCardz, PC Games Hardware, Insider Gaming