Not surprisingly given some of our member’s interest in software, there’s been a lot of discussion at Castlemakers about Artificial Intelligence(AI). We started experimenting with machine learning, an application of AI, several years ago in a squirrel proof bird feeder. And since two of our members work with software it’s been a hot topic during a lot of Open Shop times recently.

Many people don’t realize how rapidly using Large Language Models (LLM, but for that matter all AI) is becoming possible using smaller computers. One of the big changes has been open source software that provides installation capabilities and a front end for the LLM that you can run on a Windows/Linux/Mac machine.

Which has led into a workshop/class on the subject in June. It started as a way for more of us to learn about running an open source LLM on a workstation or laptop, but realized there might be more people that would like to find out more on how easy it is to set one up on a local computer. So June 20th at 7 pm we’ll be having a small class in using Ollama to install an open source LLM on a Windows PC – please check our Classes webpage for more information and to make reservations if you’re interested!