I like to think of it like solar panels. Sure at first it takes a lot to make, but over time it evens out. I was pretty clear local AI is still morally grey at best, but its a real solution to some problems, an I would argue its better to have local control and use small energy efficient models to do assisting tasks than let the open AI’s of the world decide for us.

In my opinion they are not just as bad. I’ve found small local models do a very good job of solving various small problems, while using minimal energy. At worst they’re just regular bad. If you think mass data collection without consent to do stuff is a problem then its time to stop using just about any internet product with recommendations like YouTube or search engines as they all track data and scrape websites. There’s always a line and I feel the ongoing bad actors that are AI companies that have growth at any cost and already made local models are wildly different in the evil scale.