Local on The Augmented Scholar

Ollama — Local LLMs in One Command

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Ollama makes local LLMs boring in the best way: ‘ollama run llama3.3’ downloads and serves a model on your machine, with an OpenAI-compatible API for scripts. For research on sensitive data — interviews, patient text, embargoed drafts — it is the only AI assistance that never leaves the room.

Whisper — Open-Source Transcription That Ended an Industry

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

Whisper transcribes speech to text with near-human accuracy across accents, noise, and 100 languages — and because the weights are open, it runs entirely on your machine. For interview-based research, it converted a per-hour-billed service industry into a local batch job with zero confidentiality exposure.