by bityard | 2025-09-08 17:53:42+00:00
I use a local LLM for lots of little things that I used to use search engines for. Defining words, looking up unicode symbols for copy/paste, reminders on how to do X in bash or Python. Sometimes I use it as a starting point for high-level questions and curiosity and then move to actual human content or larger online models for more details and/or fact-checking if needed.

If your computer is somewhat modern and has a decent amount of RAM to spare, it can probably run one of the smaller-but-still-useful models just fine, even without a GPU.

My reasons:

1) Search engines are actively incentivized to not show useful results. SEO-optimized clickbait articles contain long fluffy, contentless prose intermixed with ads. The longer they can keep you "searching" for the information instead of "finding" it, the better is for their bottom line. Because if you actually manage to find the information you're looking for, you close the tab and stop looking at ads. If you don't find what you need, you keep scrolling and generate more ad revenue for the advertisers and search engines. It's exactly the same reasons online dating sites are futile for most people: every successful match made results in two lost customers which is bad for revenue.

LLMs (even local ones in some cases) are quite good at giving you direct answers to direct questions which is 90% of my use for search engines to begin with. Yes, sometimes they hallucinate. No, it's not usually a big deal if you apply some common sense.

2) Most datacenter-hosted LLMs don't have ads built into them now, but they will. As soon as we get used to "trusting" hosted models due to how good they have become, the model developers and operators will figure out how to turn the model into a sneaky salesman. You'll ask it for the specs on a certain model of Dell laptop and it will pretend it didn't hear you and reply, "You should try HP's latest line of up business-class notebooks, they're fast, affordable, and come in 5 fabulous colors to suit your unique personal style!" I want to make sure I'm emphasizing that it's not IF this happens, it's WHEN.

Local LLMs COULD have advertising at some point, but it will probably be rare and/or weird as these smaller models are meant mainly for development and further experimentation. I have faith that some open-weight models will always exist in some form, even if they never rival commercially-hosted models in overall quality.

3) I've made peace with the fact that data privacy in the age of Big Tech is a myth, but that doesn't mean I can't minimize my exposure by keeping some of my random musings and queries to myself. Self-hosted AI models will never be as "good" as the ones hosted in datacenters, but they are still plenty useful.

4) I'm still in the early stages of this, but I can develop my own tools around small local models without paying a hosted model provider and/or becoming their product.

5) I was a huge skeptic about the overall value of AI during all of the initial hype. Then I realized that this stuff isn't some fad that will disappear tomorrow. It will get better. The experience will get more refined. It will get more accurate. It will consume less energy. It will be totally ubiquitous. If you fail to come to speed on some important new technology or trend, you will be left in the dust by those who do. I understand the skepticism and pushback, but the future moves forward regardless.