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Maybe you are using a local model to go after some Millennium Prize problem and you don't want OpenAI to take your work and use it to win the prize for themselves? $15k might be a bargain.

And, yes, I know a current local model wasn't going to solve the Navier-Stokes problem, but I'm just using it as an example where privacy might be valuable.

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Agreed, plenty of other reasons to get excited about local AI.
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I'll try that argument with my wife next time I want to buy a $15k mac.

It's a bold strategy cotton, lets see if it pays off for em.

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It will also reduce your heating bill.
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Despite being on a site called Hacker News, we seem to often overlook the simple aspect of wanting local AI hardware to hack (not necessarily in the cybersecurity sense) with. I got my local AI hardware because it's an enjoyable hobby for me.
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Yes it surprises me too…
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apparently if you ever point out HN starts for hackernews and thus expect related attitudes you get downvoted by shocked ( what I guess are zoomers and not bots ) that desperately opine the name is a random abberation doesn't mean anything and one should not deviate from our corporate overlods in any manner.
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A lot of people commenting on how bad idea buying local hardware for inference is also miss the fact that even in 3 years that hardware gonna cost something.

Might be if RAM prices get much more reasonable its gonna be 1/3 of the price, but it's very much possible its gonna be half or more.

And if you're buing Mac Studio and not some AI-only locked down board it's possible to reuse it for other purposes.

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On a personal level maybe not yet, but for a medium business upwards it may make sense.
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Having no debt and owning in the long run always works out better than a lifetime of renting, if you don’t have to, the massive rent letting these days, is very frustrating at some point don’t you have to draw the line?
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