Hi! My name is JD McLoughlin, and I've been developing programs (apps or software—whatever you want to call them) as a hobby for over 15 years now. I haven't really released that much software to the public in my life (I think I've only released two, under different aliases), and I've never worked at any big tech company.
I made this website not because I’m a full-on AI supporter who wants to spread AI slop all over the internet. Rather, I want to push back against people who sell assets generated by AI when, in my opinion, anything created by AI with minimal human input should be released completely free to the public.
I’m not going to pretend that I’m some kind of virtuous person either. I’ve actually tried to sell AI-generated slop in the past—but of course, I sold none. It took me a while to change my stance and ask myself: why am I selling something that’s very easy to make? (Actually, it’s because I didn’t sell anything lol.)
Now, does that make me a hypocrite? Things might have been different if I had successfully sold AI-generated slop, right? Maybe. I don’t know. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Personally, though, I believe that most people with good intentions didn’t start that way. Many people begin their journey with selfish goals, but eventually those goals shift toward something more altruistic.
Anyway, enough of the philosophical stuff. Another reason I made this site is because, for the past year, I’ve been developing a completely free, open-source “AI” chat software that runs locally as an experiment.
I'm trying to see if there's a way to develop a chat software with an LLM as it's core that can run on potato PC. I'm also trying to explore other avenues besides LLM that can mimic what it does that again, does not hog too much resources.
If it becomes successful (there’s probably a 1% chance it will work lol—I’m not even an AI engineer), I’ll use this site as the home of that chat app. The app will be released here and on GitHub, and any news or updates will also be posted on this site.
Lastly, no one probably cares about my views since I’m just a random person on the internet—but for those who are curious: am I anti-AI or pro-AI?
Well… it’s complicated lol.
The current AI we have? I’m definitely against it. And no, it’s not mainly because of the “AI is stealing people’s work” argument (although I’m somewhat on the fence about that—I do think people should be paid if their work is used to train AI). The main reason I’m against the current state of AI is because of—guess what? Big tech companies.
There's a that lot I could say about this, but the main point is that they don’t really care about ordinary people. AI is being used to maximize profits for people who already have more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives—at the expense of everyone beneath them.
I’m almost certain that many jobs today—especially white-collar jobs—will disappear or become heavily automated by AI in the next 5–10 years. Other jobs will likely follow. Many of us could end up unemployed.
So what’s the plan then? How are we supposed to survive? Will there be Universal Basic Income?
Lol, as if that’s going to happen.
There isn’t even a serious discussion about how people at the top will ensure that normal humans can still live decent lives—or even better lives—once everything becomes automated by AI.
Even though the future doesn’t look great, I’m trying to stay optimistic while also thinking about what we can do to avoid the bad ending lol.
I think one of the most important things we can do is focus on developing super-efficient AIs that can run locally on most PCs, smartphones, and laptops. They should be completely open source and designed in a way that prevents big tech companies from easily using them to build proprietary systems.
One of the biggest problems big tech companies face with their AI systems is how resource-intensive they are. That might be their Achilles’ heel. If an open-source, completely free, non-commercialized, and highly efficient general AI ever gets created and released to the public, it could change everything.
Powerful AI would become accessible to everyone—not just people with high-end devices or those who can spend $100+ every month on AI subscriptions. No one would be able to control or limit what your AI can say or do, because it would belong entirely to you and run locally on your device.
I believe in a future where ordinary people can live lives of leisure—where we don’t have to work just to survive. No worrying about paychecks, rent, or bills. A future where people can do what they actually want to do.
I believe AI can bring us that future.
The first step: Accessible AI owned, maintained, and created for the public—by the public.