How to set up your own “private offline AI” (2024)

What do I mean by “Private offline AI”

“Private offline AI” refers to artificial intelligence systems that operate locally on a device, such as a computer or smartphone, without needing to connect to the internet. These systems are designed to process data and perform AI tasks entirely on the device itself, rather than relying on external servers or cloud-based services.

Here’s a breakdown of what “private offline AI” entails:

Privacy: Since the AI operates offline, it doesn’t rely on sending data over the internet to external servers for processing. This means that sensitive data stays on the user’s device and isn’t shared with third parties, helping to maintain privacy.

Data Security: With offline AI, data is processed locally, reducing the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access that can occur when data is transmitted over the internet. This enhances data security and reduces the likelihood of privacy violations.

Accessibility: Offline AI systems can be particularly useful in environments where internet access is limited or unreliable. Users can still access AI capabilities even without a stable internet connection, providing greater accessibility to AI technology.

Speed and Efficiency: Processing data locally can often be faster and more efficient than relying on remote servers, especially for tasks that require real-time or low-latency responses. This can lead to improved performance and user experience.

User Control: Users have greater control over their data and the AI system itself when it operates offline. They can choose when and how to interact with the AI, without concerns about data being collected or analyzed by external parties.

Examples of private offline AI applications include voice assistants that can perform tasks without needing to connect to the internet, image recognition systems that analyze photos locally on a smartphone, and predictive text input systems that suggest words or phrases without sending data to external servers.

Overall, private offline AI offers a way to leverage AI technology while prioritizing privacy, security, and user control over data, making it a valuable option for individuals and organizations seeking to protect sensitive information.

How do I set it up?

Step one:

Fire up your Chrome browser and search for “Ollama”

Download it per the operating system that you are using. There are only options for Linux, Windows, or Mac as shown in the image below

Step Two:

You are halfway there Champ!

Open your terminal for Linux users or command prompt for Windows users and type :

ollama

This command will display various commands that you can use with Ollama as shown in the snippet below

We are going to use the run command to get llama2

what is llama2?

Llama2 refers to a family of large language models (LLMs) developed by Meta AI in 2023. These models are available in various sizes, ranging from 7 billion to 70 billion parameters, making them suitable for a wide range of applications.

Here’s a summary of what Llama2 offers:

Pre-trained and fine-tuned: Llama2 models come pre-trained on a massive dataset of text and code, allowing them to perform various tasks like text generation, translation, question answering, and code completion. They can also be further fine-tuned for specific purposes.

Open-source and commercially available: Meta AI has released Llama2 under an open-source license, making it freely available for research and development. Additionally, commercial licenses are available for businesses that want to use the models in their products and services.

Focus on dialogue: A specific subset of Llama2 models, called Llama2-Chat, is specifically designed for conversational AI applications. These models are fine-tuned on dialogue datasets to improve their ability to engage in natural and informative conversations.

Overall, Llama2 represents a significant advancement in the field of large language models, offering a powerful tool for researchers and developers working on various NLP tasks.

This is the command that you are going to use

ollama run llama2

You should see something similar to the image below

Once it is done then you are good to go!

In conclusion, Llama2 emerges as a versatile and powerful large language model, offering a comprehensive set of capabilities for researchers, developers, and businesses alike. Its pre-trained nature and diverse range of sizes cater to various applications, from general-purpose tasks like text generation and translation to specialized areas like dialogue systems. With the open-source availability and commercial licensing options, Llama2 holds immense potential to shape the future of natural language processing and artificial intelligence.