AI

Self-hosted AI tools let you run large language models, image generators, speech recognition, and other machine learning workloads entirely on your own hardware - no API keys, no usage fees, no requests leaving your network. Where cloud AI services charge per token, cap your usage, and process your data on servers you have no visibility into, running AI locally puts you in full control. Tools like Ollama, LocalAI, and Open WebUI let you pull down and run models like Llama, Mistral, and Gemma on a home server or a machine with a decent GPU, with a chat interface that feels as polished as anything in the cloud. Self-hosted AI is also the only viable option if you're working with sensitive data - medical records, legal documents, private business information - that can't be sent to a third-party API. The hardware bar has dropped dramatically in the last two years, and what once required a data centre now runs comfortably on a mid-range GPU or even a modern CPU. For anyone curious about what's actually inside these models, or who just wants AI that works on their terms, self-hosting is now genuinely within reach.