The case for and against local, personal AI

The author argues that local AI on owned hardware is now capable enough for real work and that the debate is really about who controls AI capabilities, rejecting the claim that only cloud frontier models are serious tools. He describes his own budget dual-GPU setup running models like Qwen3.8-27B and Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B, notes that RAM and VRAM prices are currently prohibitive, and predicts prices will eventually normalize. He frames a future "Windows XP era" of local AI in which families and small businesses handle private, mundane tasks without sending personal data to cloud vendors.