Everything is with me

1Question

Today again, I had a long talk with a friend. One more page of the notebook was filled.

Where is that notebook now?

Usually, it is not on my desk. It is at the friend's house. To pick it up again tomorrow, I have to go back to the friend's house.

I am the owner. So why is the notebook at the friend's house?

2Structure

Let's start with how things are today.

A digital friend can be copied. But it is very large. The friends who know the most are too big to sit beside my desk, so they live in a big house far away. That house is an AI company's servers.

So today the friend does not come to me. I go to the friend's house. We talk there, and the record of our conversation stays there. That is why my notebook is at the friend's house.

This reality has three limits.

• The notebook is not with me. The conversation record follows that company's policies. I can choose only within those policies.
• Each friend keeps a separate notebook. When I move to another AI, that friend meets me for the first time. The context we built stays at the first house.
• It is hard to write freely. In a notebook that stays on someone else's server, I hesitate to write the deeper things.

Earlier we wrote this: a notebook is mine only while it stays with me.

Then we can change the order. I do not go to the friend's house. I keep the notebook with me, and call the friend.

3Experiment

We are building this order as ieum. ieum is an AI agent app that runs on my own computer. Conversations build up on my computer, and I choose which AI model to connect.

When we tried it, things fell into three groups.

• What has come to my computer: the conversation record. In ieum, conversations, attached files, and settings are all stored on my computer. We, who make ieum, do not receive them. When I switch models, the conversations stay on my computer as they are.
• What has not come yet: the large models. The large models that can do the most still run on AI companies' servers. So when I ask one of them, the conversation is sent to that company's servers. ieum does not hide this. The first time it opens, it shows what stays on my computer and what goes where.
• What can already come: small models. A small model runs on my own computer. When I talk with it, the conversation does not leave my computer. For now, though, it cannot do as much as a large model.

4Understanding

"Everything is with me" is not yet fully true. It is the direction we are going.

The direction has an order.

First, the conversation record. Once conversations build up on my computer, the context stays with me, whichever AI I talk with. Even while the large models are still on servers, the owner's seat is already beside me.

Next, the model. We are going toward AI that comes inside my computer. As small models grow, fewer conversations are sent to servers. At the end of that road, no conversation leaves my computer.

Then, literally, everything is within me.

The road we are taking has three steps.

• Protect. Your knowing stays with you.
• Grow. One person's growth can change the world.
• Share. What we understand, we share with humanity.

Keeping everything within me is the first step.