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Forget ChatGPT: why researchers now run small AIs on their laptops

Artificial-intelligence models are typically used online, but a host of openly available tools is changing that. Here’s how to get started with local AIs.
  1. Matthew Hutson

    1. Matthew Hutson is a science writer based in New York City.

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Illustration: The Project Twins

The website histo.fyi is a database of structures of immune-system proteins called major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. It includes images, data tables and amino-acid sequences, and is run by bioinformatician Chris Thorpe, who uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools called large language models (LLMs) to convert those assets into readable summaries. But he doesn’t use ChatGPT, or any other web-based LLM. Instead, Thorpe runs the AI on his laptop.

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Nature 633, 728-729 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02998-y

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 24 September 2024: An earlier version of this Technology feature conflated two pieces of software. The quote “operates locally, ensuring no data leaks” actually came from the developer of ceLLama, not CELLama.

References

  1. Abdin, M. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2404.14219 (2024).

  2. Choi, H. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.08.593094 (2024).

  3. Ferruz, N. et al. Nature Commun. 13, 4348 (2022).

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