The generative AI hype train is still picking up steam. I know some thought it would be off its rails by now but it appears not getting on it could be detrimental to one’s professional future. So, what if you want to get in on the action but you regularly do not have access to the internet?
You’re in luck because there are some AI chatbots that can run offline. You just need to download the thing and you’ll be good to go regardless of your data bundle status.
You can probably imagine that an offline AI chatbot could not possibly be as good as an online one. That’s true but you can still get the offline one to assist you with a lot of digital chores.
Freedom GPT
I messed around with one, Freedom GPT, and I have to say, it’s better than not having one. I prefer using Bard or Bing AI, but if Freedom GPT is all I had, using it would still be worthwhile.
Freedom GPT does have an online version but we are not here to talk about that.
Freedom GPT can generate text, translate languages, and answer questions even when offline. If you’re a privacy nut you’ll love having all conversations with it being stored locally on your computer.
Freedom GPT is open source and users can actually choose which open source model to use. The tech-head will appreciate that but if all you are after is offline use, then I’d say do not fret too much about which open-source model to use.
For those that may want to know, Freedom GPT leverages Stanford’s Alpaca models.
No censorship
One of the great things about Freedom GPT is that it is not censored. Not by any company and not by any government.
See, the likes of Bard have content filters to protect users from offensive, hateful or untrue things. Untrue stuff often leaks out regardless.
As you know, the moment we talk of filters, we also talk of bias. One man’s fake news is another man’s gospel.
I’m sure you have seen examples of ChatGPT refusing to say anything positive that Donal Trump did. Not even the brokerage of peace in the Middle East. You don’t have to like the guy to realise that he must have done something good at one point in his four-year term.
It’s not just politics. The censored AIs steer clear of politics, general comparisons, and some other specific ideologies.
That won’t be a problem with Freedom GPT. It will deliver responses based on whatever data it was trained on.
Could they be offensive? You best believe it but you can rest easy knowing no one is the arbiter of what’s truth and what’s not. You can sift through the muck yourself.
That feels like the perfect time to remind ourselves that AI models are mainly trained on public writing and data found online. This data has its own biases and Freedom GPT will spew whatever those are.
What you need to use Freedom GPT
They recommend a computer with at least 8GB of RAM, with anything above 10GB providing the best experience.
Your computer also needs to be running Windows 10/11, Linux or MacOS. Windows 7 users may be out of luck. It might work, but it might not for you, you can try it out if you want.
Lastly, you need to run the app from an SSD. We have talked about how RAM plus an SSD could save you from buying a brand new laptop. An SSD is “essentially like a flash or thumb drive that works in your computer or as an external hard drive.”
You need that and not the old hard drives, they are too slow to be able to run Freedom GPT from.
Last last, you will need about 4GB of data to download Freedom GPT for offline use.
If you are good with all that, you can download Freedom GPT here.
There you go, give Freedom GPT a try if you need an offline AI with you sometimes. If you do, please let us know how it all goes.
Also read:
Not sure how to get the most out of AI like Bard and ChatGPT? – here are prompts to get you started
Gmail writes emails for you and Google Photos gives ‘Photoshop powers’ to everyone now
It’s all about AI and the Pixels in today’s weekly tech news summary, 12 May
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