On-device inference just turned the cloud into expensive nostalgia
Local AI frameworks are making cloud APIs look like dial-up modems in the broadband era.
We’re watching the great retreat from the cloud happen in real time. Frameworks that run complete AI systems locally aren’t just cost optimisations anymore. They’re architectural revolutions that make cloud inference look like renting a supercomputer to check your email.
The economics stopped making sense
Running agents locally costs 800 times less than cloud APIs whilst landing within three points of performance. That’s not a marginal improvement. That’s the sound of an entire business model breaking. When your laptop can run multimodal models with native audio under 16GB of RAM, paying per token feels like buying individual pixels for your monitor.
Privacy became a feature, not a promise
Local frameworks don’t just keep your data on-device because it’s nice to have. They do it because shipping every conversation to someone else’s computer was always absurd. We convinced ourselves that cloud inference was necessary because the models were too big. Now the models fit in your pocket and remember everything without phoning home.
The cloud giants spent billions building inference infrastructure that’s about to become as relevant as fax machines. Sometimes the future isn’t about scaling up. Sometimes it’s about staying put.