Local & private AI for apple-silicon

Apple Silicon Macs share one pool of unified memory between CPU and GPU, which lets them run surprisingly large local models quietly and at low power.

3 real examples, each linked to its original source.

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A private ChatGPT for a family of four on a Mac mini

One always-on M4 Mac mini serves Open WebUI to every phone and laptop in the house. Kids get a tutor preset, and three AI subscriptions are gone.

Think Different · 2026-06-07

Connecting a private Obsidian vault to Ollama on macOS

Meeting notes stay off public AI services. llama3.1 and nomic-embed-text in Ollama, wired up through the Local GPT and AI Providers plugins.

Annvix · 2025-05-07

Mac Studio as an always-on, LLM-driven smart-home brain

Phrases like 'it's stuffy in here' become real device calls, run by Ollama with qwen3:14b on a Mac Studio. €15 ESP32 satellites keep all audio on the LAN.

Think Different