However, in my experience, there are great reasons to run local chatbots on your own computer.
Those chatbots, at least by default, record and analyze every single conversation you have with them.
However, it’s important to note that not all local chatbots guarantee high levels of privacy.
They have been designed to make money.
For example,OpenAImay be non-profit, but it eventually established a for-profit wing.
Additionally, its leading rivals likeCharacter.aiandClaude.aihave been for-profit since their start.
In today’s economy, $20 bucks a month is a lot over time.
Local chatbots can help you save on those costs.
If you are a heavy chatbot user, local chatbots could save you from subscribing to multiple companies.
Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek
If you don’t use them that often, local bots are an evenwiser investment.
This was handy for me a few months ago when I was flying.
I didn’t download any movies or bring a book, but I had aDistilBERTmodel on my gaming laptop.
I was able to have some exciting conversations with an AI while flying at 35,000 feet!
Remember that running local models can drain your battery at the same rate as an intense PC game.
So it’s a good thing that it was a quick flight!
4Improved Latency
Local chatbots will always have less training data than the big commercial players.
This is in-part because you are not sharing the AI with anyone else.
This round-trip can introduce noticeable delays, particularly during peak usage times or if there are web link issues.
A local chatbot processes everything on your machine, resulting in much faster response times.
Running a chatbot on my PC was a fantastic learning opportunity.
