I don’t consider myself very technical. I’ve never taken a computer science course and don’t know python. I’ve learned some things like Linux, the command line, docker and networking/pfSense because I value my privacy. My point is that anyone can do this, even if you aren’t technical.
I tried both LM Studio and Ollama. I prefer Ollama. Then you download models and use them to have your own private, personal GPT. I access it both on my local machine through the command line but I also installed Open WebUI in a docker container so I can access it on any device on my local network (I don’t expose services to the internet).
Having a private ai/gpt is pretty cool. You can download and test new models. And it is private. Yes, there are ethical concerns about how the model got the training. I’m not minimizing those concerns. But if you want your own AI/GPT assistant, give it a try. I set it up in a couple of hours, and as I said… I’m not even that technical.
You really don’t have to - There’s GPT4ALL designed for normal users with very simple GUI
Also, with minimal command line knowledge you can install InvokeAI - probably the best UX for image generating AI on the market. Works both on Linux and Windows
It’s so great that there is so much ongoing development of these types of tools out there. I’m currently using openweb ui as my GUI but I’ll give your suggestion a try next week. I haven’t figured out a use case for stable diffusion except for creating new content for the shitposting community on lemmy lol. But if you have any ideas, please let me know… I’d love to test it out if I have a good use case.
Both my avatar and channel cover are made with AI models - so this is a good start.
IMO the biggest potential is indie game dev - AI image generation is amazing for static backgrounds, character design, and with certain loras it absolutely shreds pixelart - I even saw entire workflows for building pixelart animations (I think it was for ComfyUi tho).
Also local image models are uncensored so… porn XD
If you like to write, I find that story boarding with stable diffusion is definitely an improvement. The quality of the images is what it is, but they can help you map out scenes and locations, and spot visual details and cues to include in your writing.