An easy way to run an AI chatbot locally on your laptop

People use all kinds artificial intelligence applications in their daily lives now. There are many benefits to running LLM locally on your computer instead of using a web interface like HuggingFace. First, running LLM locally without sending data through a web interface allows the user to generate data with greater privacy. Most web services that allow you to use LLM constantly remind the user not to send any sensitive information through LLM, since the developers are monitoring conversations and any number of people can see your data.

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Some people are more protective of their data than others and would prefer to try these services in a more private environment where they are not being monitored. Local LLM interfaces, such as GPT4ALL, allow the user to run the model without submitting requests and responses through company portals and can give them greater freedom in testing and tuning the model. Here’s how to install GPT4ALL and local LLM on any supported device.

GPT4ALL is an open source large language model interface developed by Nomic AI that allows you to run your chosen LLM locally through the provided interface. The application is compatible with all major major LLM distributions such as ChatGPTLama and Mistral. It even has a search function that allows you to search for LLM implementations and document sets to install in GPT4ALL directly in the interface.

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You can install, manage and connect to various LLMs, including custom libraries for different models, directly from the GPT4ALL application. Additionally, GPT4ALL uses your computer’s resources and does not require a powerful GPU to run models locally like other implementations. This is because the models integrated in GPT4ALL are quantized to a smaller overall size to reduce the required computational power for LLM. The goal of GPT4ALL is to improve public access to artificial intelligence tools and language models.

The graphical user interface (GUI) for GPT4ALL is officially supported for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu. Nomic provides installation files compiled for various operating systems. However, users of Linux distributions other than Ubuntu may need to follow additional steps to get the program running. To install the app on Windows or macOS, simply download and run the installer files. Then follow the instructions. Once the app is installed, you can launch it and it will open a chat interface similar to other LLM interfaces.

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Linux users who want to install the application can install it from the Ubuntu installer if it is compatible with their distribution. It is also possible to build a Python program using the command line. To install an application via Python using the command line on Linux, you need to run the following command in the terminal:

pip install gpt4all

Installing LLM on GPT4ALL is a snap. The application has a list of compatible LLMs that you can find and install directly in the interface. The list even helps you sort the data by the amount of RAM required to run each model, what the model is based on, the size of the model, and other parameters that may be determining factors for the user. All of this information is easily accessible in the GPT4ALL interface, allowing users to select the models that best suit their specific needs.

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Some models that can be used via GPT4ALL require API keys to access. They are not determined by the GPT4ALL command. Rather, if a model requires an API key, that is a directive from the company that developed and trained the model. Models such as GPT-4 and some official Mistral distributions require the use of an API key, regardless of whether you run them locally or through the web interface. So, unfortunately, using GPT4ALL is not a way to bypass OpenAI’s key fees if you want to use this service.