Run a Local AI Copilot

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but if you have even modest tech skills and you’re not running a local AI model on your laptop, you’re missing it.

Imagine having the power of Stack Overflow, Reddit, Google, and a bookshelf of encyclopedias without needing internet. You can ask your laptop any technical question—and it answers in seconds.

Research Ollama and the broader universe of open-source LLMs. It takes minutes to install, runs offline, stays private, and is smarter than most people expect. Once it’s set up it’s as simple as:

ollama run mistral

Here’s the quick-start path I’ve been sharing with teammates:

1. Check requirements – Confirm your laptop meets the Ollama hardware guidance. Apple Silicon works out of the box; Windows/Linux users can lean on the Docker instructions.
2. Install Ollama – macOS: brew install ollama/ollama/ollama. Windows: follow the official installer. Linux: curl the install script or use Docker.
3. Explore models – Browse the Ollama model library for options like phi4, llama3.1, or deepseek-coder. Pull one with ollama pull llama3.1.
4. Run locally – Start a chat via ollama run <model> and prompt it with your debugging questions, API docs, or architecture ideas. Everything stays on your machine.
5. Tweak + extend – Point the model at local files using ollama run <model> --file notes.md, or wire it into editors/CLI tools. Because it’s offline, you control the data and can iterate whenever you want.

If you’ve been on the fence, take 10 minutes this weekend and spin one up. Let me know which models you’re finding the most useful.