The existing local models already exist, and new releases will happen because the companies want to sell you inference. They receive no profit or incentive to release the models as open weights but they do it anyway - There is no coherent ethical delimma against using them locally, as it has no effect on whether the companies will or will not be encouraged to do more training.
I’m using it locally, with models my existing computer can handle. I think, but I’m not sure, that it’s better for the environment than buying into some massive model hosted in a data centre. And I don’t want to lose my skills so I still try to do as much as I can without calling on it.
No, and I do understand that training is the most energy-intensive part of the process. I don’t know how exactly it divides up: how much of the work of massive data centres is training and how much is running people’s queries on finished models.
you got me at “responsibly” burning resources.
Not everyone uses big data center powered LLM inference though. Running some models locally uses less power than playing a video game.
now where have these models been trained?
The existing local models already exist, and new releases will happen because the companies want to sell you inference. They receive no profit or incentive to release the models as open weights but they do it anyway - There is no coherent ethical delimma against using them locally, as it has no effect on whether the companies will or will not be encouraged to do more training.
I’m using it locally, with models my existing computer can handle. I think, but I’m not sure, that it’s better for the environment than buying into some massive model hosted in a data centre. And I don’t want to lose my skills so I still try to do as much as I can without calling on it.
did you generate your model locally?
No, and I do understand that training is the most energy-intensive part of the process. I don’t know how exactly it divides up: how much of the work of massive data centres is training and how much is running people’s queries on finished models.
maybe ask the vendor to let him pay the actual cost plus a proper profit margin to figure that out?