5 Reasons I Use Local Ai On My Desktop - Instead Of Chatgpt, Gemini, Or Claude

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ZDNET cardinal takeaways

• AI usage continues increasing and impacting everything.
• Using cloud-hosted AI has respective drawbacks.
• Locally installed AI is easy to usage and free.

AI isn't going anywhere, and everyone knows that by now. People astir nan world are utilizing AI for conscionable astir immoderate logic aliases task that you tin imagine. I cognize group who see nan AI chatbots to beryllium friends. I besides cognize group who look astatine AI arsenic a instrumentality for research. And past location are those who usage AI to constitute correspondence and different types of documents.

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When astir group usage AI, they thin to usage nan likes of ChatGPT, Mistral, Copilot, Gemini, aliases Claude. Those services are cloud-hosted and surely person their benefits. Others (like myself) ever opt for locally installed AI first.

I person my reasons.

What is locally installed AI?

As nan sanction implies, locally installed AI intends that you've installed everything basal connected your individual desktop (or server) and are capable to usage it conscionable for illustration you would usage a cloud-hosted solution.

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Yes, it does return a spot of knowledge to make this work, but it's acold easier than you mightiness think. For instance, you could person Ollama and nan Ollama desktop app installed successful little than 5 minutes. Once you've taken attraction of that, you tin bask your ain individual AI solution.

But why would you?

Let's chat.

1. Privacy

This is simply a large 1 for me. I'm a very backstage person, and would alternatively not person my AI usage scraped and utilized by a 3rd party. I don't want a institution utilizing my AI interactions to train their LLMs, nor do I want those 3rd parties to usage my chats to create a floor plan of maine for targeted ads.

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That's portion of nan beauty that comes on pinch section AI: you don't person to interest astir these things. Locally installed AI solutions do not prevention and stock telemetry aliases thing you stock successful your queries. When you spell this route, your information is safe, which intends thing you are researching will not find its measurement into nan hands of a 3rd party.

2. Cost

The basal type of ChatGPT Plus is $20 per month. That whitethorn not look for illustration overmuch to some, but erstwhile you harvester that pinch each of nan different subscriptions you have, it adds up. And, for illustration mobile plans of nan early 2000s, if you spell complete your information limit, it'll costs you.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's genitor company, revenge an April 2025 suit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights successful training and operating its AI systems.)

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Locally installed AI is free. Period. I installed Ollama and either Msty aliases nan charismatic Ollama app connected each of my machines and haven't paid a penny for AI since I started utilizing it. Ask yourself this question: Why americium I paying for a work that I could person for free? Save yourself 20 bucks a period and usage locally installed AI.

3. Speed

Hear maine retired connected this one. I recognize that nary of america has information centers successful our homes that could lucifer nan powerfulness of ChatGPT. At nan aforesaid time, erstwhile utilizing cloud-hosted AI, you person to woody pinch different issues, specified arsenic nan velocity of your net connection. Should you suffer from slow net speeds, it tin impact your AI chats. 

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With locally installed AI, you don't person to interest astir net speeds and tin bask a level of consistency that you won't find otherwise. Even amended is, if you find your section AI chats are excessively slow, you tin ever upgrade your computer's RAM aliases GPU to velocity things up; that's not thing you tin do pinch cloud-hosted AI.

4. Offline capacity

I've had instances wherever my net connectivity is interrupted, but I tin still interact pinch my locally installed AI. Why? Because locally installed AI doesn't request an net connection. Everything you request to usage AI is location erstwhile you're utilizing it locally. 

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That offline capacity tin surely prevention you a batch of wasted clip erstwhile you still request to do your research, but don't person an net connection. I could unopen down my LAN and still usage AI connected my desktop aliases my laptop. Of course, if I unopen down my LAN, I can't entree nan locally installed AI from a different instrumentality (which I sometimes do).

5. Environment

For maine (and judge galore others), this is simply a large issue: nan biology effect of cloud-hosted AI. A paper from MIT had this to opportunity connected nan issue:

"The computational powerfulness required to train generative AI models that often person billions of parameters, specified arsenic OpenAI's GPT-4, tin request a staggering magnitude of electricity, which leads to accrued c dioxide emissions and pressures connected nan electrical grid."

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There are superior concerns arsenic to what AI will do to nan situation complete time. Not only do AI companies devour a ton of electricity, but arsenic a byproduct of power consumption, AI information centers make a batch of power that is sent retired into nan environment. That is not sustainable, and it's yet different logic why I'm gladsome I opted to usage locally installed AI, alternatively of utilizing immoderate cloud-hosted option.

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