this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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A model being local doesn't make it magically better than cloud based ones. Especially since your local hardware may not be as optimized as professional hardware.
And I say that as a local AI user.
The way to make it less harmful mainly comes from external factors :
Edit:
I'd add to that that you can reuse the heat generated to heat your apartment. But it only works during winter, as during summer any heat generated will make your AC (if you have one) work harder.
Yeah, I tend to do a bench test on my Laptop to heat myself up. It's really neat!
No, I don't have a gaming rig. It's not going above 65W, and I actually have an ideological reason I want to switch to solar power too.
Soon, my local AI's will be solar powered as well, and offline.
Sadly, so far I have the capability to only charge my Tablet and phone, which are actually decent for AI in their own right.
Better than a benchmark, you should try Boinc or Folding@Home.
Heating by science.
There was this citizen science project where few tried to manually fold proteins. Unfortunately, the computer was better than us at it, and we didn't contribute much. I sucked. However, I contributed my PC resources for a rather short while to some random cancer research project. I don't remember the details, I figured it was a better use of idle computer time than mining bitcoins.
Boy was I wrong.