Local LLMs

Jan van der Straet (Stradanus), Impressio Librorum, from Nova Reperta, engraved by Joannes Galle. Museum Plantin-Moretus, public domain.

Coming soon. The exercises, prompts and materials for this session will be posted here once it meets on December 2.

Wednesday, December 2, 2026 — 12:00–12:50 In 6 weeks

Local LLMs

Presented by Jonathan Seyfried

History Commons (MVH 1104)

Run an AI model on your own computer so you can work with unpublished or sensitive material without sending it to anyone's servers, and see what you give up in exchange.

  • Run a model on your laptopChoose a model that fits your computer, install it with Ollama, and use it with no internet connection.
  • Keep your data on your deviceLearn when a local model is the right choice for unpublished research, student work, and IRB-protected material.
  • Compare local and cloud modelsGive a local model and a frontier model the same task to see what you gain in privacy and lose in quality.

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