I have avoided AI (LLMS) because it didn’t seem nearly useful enough to warrant supporting these tech assholes. Is there anyway to use it locally on a normal device (16 Gb ram, 8 year old Geforce graphics, etc?). Can I just slow it down and get it to work locally?
Use open weight models either small enough to run yourself or via your diverse online host of choice.
I believe there are options to host open models on hardware you don’t own without having to give money to the “evil” data centers. Getting away from data centers entirely is impossible as that is how the internet has worked for a very long time now.