5 ms·

"I am not sure how many people will run AI models locally. It still seems like a niche application to me. However, it will make decent machines to play video ga

"I am not sure how many people will run AI models locally. It still seems like a niche application to me. However, it will make decent machines to play video games..." This is the 2026 edition of Ken Olsen: "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home"

joering2 4mo ago
or "640K ought to be enough for anybody."
- throw1234567891 4mo ago
  There’s no public proof this has ever been said, and if it was, if it was not taken out of context.
- shermantanktop 4mo ago
  https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/ Nobody ever said that, at least not as an assertion or prediction. The actual instances of similar language are from multiple people describing their earlier thoughts before they learned it wasn’t true.
- DonHopkins 4mo ago
  I have that many browser tabs.
AaronAPU 4mo ago
That’s too strong of an assertion. Local models aren’t deterministically equivalent in capabilities to foundation models. Home computers are turing complete; just like a mainframe. They are just slower. Often not slower enough to matter.
- sandworm101 4mo ago
  Most people are ok with slower. An AI that lets you edit a family picture, in say 30 seconds, locally is preferable to one that is instantaneous but requires you to submit that picture to examination/storage/training/sale in someone else's AI ecosystem. If i want to crop my ex out of family photos, i should not have to first give that photo to Microsoft. If want an LLM to write a book report for me, i dont want it also alerting my school. And if i write a memo for a client, and i want an LLM to check the spelling, i dont want that memo leaked either.
  - parineum 4mo ago
    > Most people are ok with slower. An AI that lets you edit a family picture, in say 30 seconds, locally is preferable to one that is instantaneous but requires you to submit that picture to examination/storage/training/sale in someone else's AI ecosystem. Maybe if you ask them that question, but if you show them two products, they'll definitely prefer the faster one. 30 seconds is a long time to watch a progress bar.
    - spwa4 4mo ago
      Plus there's the other question. If this thing is slower ... what's the price? The desktop/mini-pc version of this is $3000, after all. At this performance level what is an acceptable price for the laptops? People definitely aren't going to accept more expensive + slower ...
    - sandworm101 4mo ago
      Fast and public, or slow and private. Not everyone wants, or is allowed to, share their data with the AI world. And do not doubt that every bit shared with an AI service will be used for training.
      - parineum 4mo ago
        The question here is about markets though. Not everyone wants x but if the vast majority of people want y, x is going to be niche and expensive. You don't think the commercials of Google's AI photo features aren't going to have an impact on Apple users of their phones can do a worse version of that feature and it takes longer?
throw0101a 4mo ago
> This is the 2026 edition of Ken Olsen: "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home" Digging into this: > In conclusion, there is evidence that Ken Olsen did doubt the need for computers in the home, but the evidence is based primarily on the testimony of David Ahl who was perturbed when the personal computer project he championed at DEC was not supported by Olsen in 1974. > Olsen’s resistance may have been similar to that expressed by another DEC executive, Gordon Bell. In 1980 Bell thought home terminals would act as gateways to remote computers which would provide appropriate services. * https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/09/14/home-computer/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/09/14/home-computer/ It was supposedly said in 1977: most computers at that time were not small, and so it would not be surprising that people would not expect the general public to desire a large, power-hungry, noise-y apparatus in their house.
- parineum 4mo ago
  It doesn't really need this much explanation. People take these quotes out of context all the time. Said in a business context, there was no need, at that time, for someone to have a personal computer. There's no business justification in 1977 for a personal computer department at a business. It's similar to the gates quote about RAM (I think it was 64KB?). These statements aren't meant to be forever quotes. Their business plan quotes.
  - glimshe 4mo ago
    Or maybe he simply made a mistake. Big deal. This doesn't speak negatively of his other achievements.
    - shermantanktop 4mo ago
      He had a long career and presumably many successes, and is fallible like the rest of us. But a half-remembered zinger with no context makes for zippier posts I guess. The early popularity of Minitel, the continued popularity of ssh/tmux, and the web browser itself indicates that bespoke client applications are not the only way. He wasn’t directionally wrong.
fg137 4mo ago
You seriously think running LLM is the same thing as general computing?
- ako 4mo ago
  It’s better, it’s useful even for those who don’t have a deep knowledge of computers. I’d expect more AI users than programmers, than ms-word users, than excel users.
  - fg137 4mo ago
    You are confusing "using AI" with "running LLM locally".
dakolli 4mo ago
I will not be spending thousands in hardware to run the worlds most mediocre llms at meh speeds. Sorry. I know for llm bros they think every output made by an LLM is magic, like every NFT guy thought every NFT collection was game changing, but there's nothing useful you can do with llms and 128gb of RAM (and there never will be) unless you have llm psychosis. Who cares.
- Gigachad 4mo ago
  Nothing isn't quite right but you wouldn't be using it like the hosted ones. 128gb is more than enough to run models to index my files and photos, denoise photos / AI photo masking, magic eraser type tasks for images, frame generation for gaming, etc. Even for a lot of LLM type tasks, 128gb is likely more than enough to control a lot of PC configuration and automation with natural language.

joering2 4mo ago

or "640K ought to be enough for anybody."

throw1234567891 4mo ago
There’s no public proof this has ever been said, and if it was, if it was not taken out of context.
shermantanktop 4mo ago
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/ Nobody ever said that, at least not as an assertion or prediction. The actual instances of similar language are from multiple people describing their earlier thoughts before they learned it wasn’t true.
DonHopkins 4mo ago
I have that many browser tabs.

AaronAPU 4mo ago

That’s too strong of an assertion. Local models aren’t deterministically equivalent in capabilities to foundation models. Home computers are turing complete; just like a mainframe. They are just slower. Often not slower enough to matter.

sandworm101 4mo ago
Most people are ok with slower. An AI that lets you edit a family picture, in say 30 seconds, locally is preferable to one that is instantaneous but requires you to submit that picture to examination/storage/training/sale in someone else's AI ecosystem. If i want to crop my ex out of family photos, i should not have to first give that photo to Microsoft. If want an LLM to write a book report for me, i dont want it also alerting my school. And if i write a memo for a client, and i want an LLM to check the spelling, i dont want that memo leaked either.
- parineum 4mo ago
  > Most people are ok with slower. An AI that lets you edit a family picture, in say 30 seconds, locally is preferable to one that is instantaneous but requires you to submit that picture to examination/storage/training/sale in someone else's AI ecosystem. Maybe if you ask them that question, but if you show them two products, they'll definitely prefer the faster one. 30 seconds is a long time to watch a progress bar.
  - spwa4 4mo ago
    Plus there's the other question. If this thing is slower ... what's the price? The desktop/mini-pc version of this is $3000, after all. At this performance level what is an acceptable price for the laptops? People definitely aren't going to accept more expensive + slower ...
  - sandworm101 4mo ago
    Fast and public, or slow and private. Not everyone wants, or is allowed to, share their data with the AI world. And do not doubt that every bit shared with an AI service will be used for training.
    - parineum 4mo ago
      The question here is about markets though. Not everyone wants x but if the vast majority of people want y, x is going to be niche and expensive. You don't think the commercials of Google's AI photo features aren't going to have an impact on Apple users of their phones can do a worse version of that feature and it takes longer?

throw0101a 4mo ago

> This is the 2026 edition of Ken Olsen: "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home" Digging into this: > In conclusion, there is evidence that Ken Olsen did doubt the need for computers in the home, but the evidence is based primarily on the testimony of David Ahl who was perturbed when the personal computer project he championed at DEC was not supported by Olsen in 1974. > Olsen’s resistance may have been similar to that expressed by another DEC executive, Gordon Bell. In 1980 Bell thought home terminals would act as gateways to remote computers which would provide appropriate services. * https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/09/14/home-computer/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/09/14/home-computer/ It was supposedly said in 1977: most computers at that time were not small, and so it would not be surprising that people would not expect the general public to desire a large, power-hungry, noise-y apparatus in their house.

parineum 4mo ago
It doesn't really need this much explanation. People take these quotes out of context all the time. Said in a business context, there was no need, at that time, for someone to have a personal computer. There's no business justification in 1977 for a personal computer department at a business. It's similar to the gates quote about RAM (I think it was 64KB?). These statements aren't meant to be forever quotes. Their business plan quotes.
- glimshe 4mo ago
  Or maybe he simply made a mistake. Big deal. This doesn't speak negatively of his other achievements.
  - shermantanktop 4mo ago
    He had a long career and presumably many successes, and is fallible like the rest of us. But a half-remembered zinger with no context makes for zippier posts I guess. The early popularity of Minitel, the continued popularity of ssh/tmux, and the web browser itself indicates that bespoke client applications are not the only way. He wasn’t directionally wrong.

fg137 4mo ago

You seriously think running LLM is the same thing as general computing?

ako 4mo ago
It’s better, it’s useful even for those who don’t have a deep knowledge of computers. I’d expect more AI users than programmers, than ms-word users, than excel users.
- fg137 4mo ago
  You are confusing "using AI" with "running LLM locally".

dakolli 4mo ago

I will not be spending thousands in hardware to run the worlds most mediocre llms at meh speeds. Sorry. I know for llm bros they think every output made by an LLM is magic, like every NFT guy thought every NFT collection was game changing, but there's nothing useful you can do with llms and 128gb of RAM (and there never will be) unless you have llm psychosis. Who cares.

Gigachad 4mo ago
Nothing isn't quite right but you wouldn't be using it like the hosted ones. 128gb is more than enough to run models to index my files and photos, denoise photos / AI photo masking, magic eraser type tasks for images, frame generation for gaming, etc. Even for a lot of LLM type tasks, 128gb is likely more than enough to control a lot of PC configuration and automation with natural language.