You can download Large Language Models (LLMs) on your computer and use them without the internet, if you want. I’ve been playing with open source models. Some I downloaded locally (which basically means on my computer) from ollama, some through Application Programming Interface (API). It took me a while to familiarise myself with the setup and different models.
They’re not quite the ChatGPT experience yet, mostly because of the LLM’s size and your system’s memory. But there’s massive scope for personalisation: integrations with other software, long-term memory, and most importantly, they’re free and private. Fast-forward to what is becoming valuable in the AI world: your data. Yes. They are using it and you are not protected or getting paid for it.
The catch? You need a lot of compute power for a good enough model. Ollama’s local models almost destroyed my GPU. While DeepSeek and Qwen’s smaller models were amazingly open source and performed all functions that ChatGPT or Claude could, the smaller local models couldn’t handle the coding development work I needed.
What we need to do first is create ‘ecosystems’. That is an offering.
We must start by asking: what is valuable to my business that I need? Models have almost plateaued with slightly better efficiency than the last wave of AI-models.
The gap is closing fast. While with some AI, you can’t even tell anymore. The intelligent use of AI as a tool, that’s what separates those who orchestrate from those who get orchestrated.
The big LLM companies continue dominating the game. Now it’s open season for low to no budget builders. But are the builders the farmers or are they being farmed?