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AI BriefWire / Briefing
Ollama is a free, private, and locally installable AI alternative to ChatGPT. It offers benefits such as enhanced privacy and cost savings. Users can run AI models without relying on cloud services, reducing environmental impact.
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Save your money, your privacy, and the planet. This installable AI offers several benefits you won't find with more traditional models like ChatGPT.
Ollama is a small player in the AI game, but it should be much bigger than it is. This installable AI has several benefits you won't find with the likes of ChatGPT, and those benefits are what keep me from ever using a more traditional service.
I've written about Ollama quite often over the past year, but I thought it was time to share the reasons I choose to use this app over any other.
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(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
Ollama is a free, open-source tool that you can download and install on your computer (Linux, MacOS, or Windows). With Ollama, you can run large language models (LLMs) directly on your system. The main issue to consider is your computer's speed. AI requires a fair bit of horsepower to be useful. That doesn't mean you can't use it on a midrange machine, but if you're using it on mid- to low-end hardware, it'll run more slowly, and you might not be able to multitask while it churns through your queries.
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