Training in the Cloud, Running at Home

Your next computer could change what you are willing to pay for an AI subscription.

The Economics of Personal AIWhen you buy a powerful computer, you expect it to do the work. You paid for the processor, the memory, and the electricity. Yet when you open a cloud AI assistant, much of that hardware waits while another computer generates the answer.

There are good reasons for this. Large models can need more resources than a personal device can provide. But the balance can change as computers improve and models become more efficient.

That raises a business question as much as a technical one: what happens to the AI subscription when the customer already owns a computer capable of doing the job?

Apple offers a particularly interesting case.…