Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device • Hacker News Board

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#41

Post by Muromec » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

handfuloflight wrote: post #13

1dom wrote: post #10

This is a cool way of approaching AI models. I'm a big fan of local LLMs, local specific models like this should be even more powerful. > Every model is free up to 100k monthly active devices. No tokens, no logins. I dunno about the business model though. Cloud LLM billing makes sense: you're getting another computer to do work with each request, and using their compute via their gateway that they bill you. These loc…

How is it not obvious and fair that they are asking you to pay them when you see success (defined as >100K MAU)? How more aligned can you and them be besides this?

When I buy I chair I don't pay a share of my income to the furniture shop when I get rich. I would buy another chair at some point too, maybe fancier one (or the same). Because chairs are commodity. I do however pay taxes to the government based on my income because it keeps doing ongoing maintenance on everything.

Everyone wants to be paid forever for something they produced once is some kind of a mind virus. Make me a better chair and maybe I will buy it, but don't expect to become a trillion dollar company. It's deeply unfair to everyone who wants to be a trillion dollar company of course.

What is really funny to me -- the ones that do make it to collect the rent indefinitely also decrease their own taxes paid to the government AND also decrease the amount of contribution to society by making less and shittier stuff.

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#42

Post by TechSquidTV » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

sejje wrote: post #34

TechSquidTV wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LLMs are static though.

In the way that, say, Garmin Maps are static, I agree.

... So we both agree.

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#43

Post by Muromec » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

donavanm wrote: post #12

1dom wrote: post #10

This is a cool way of approaching AI models. I'm a big fan of local LLMs, local specific models like this should be even more powerful. > Every model is free up to 100k monthly active devices. No tokens, no logins. I dunno about the business model though. Cloud LLM billing makes sense: you're getting another computer to do work with each request, and using their compute via their gateway that they bill you. These loc…

> why should you continue getting money off me and my customers? Welcome to the concept of fair market value. Less snarkily you're conflating the concepts of price and cost; theyre not the same thing and theyre not the same for you or the seller.

How does piracy of digital content and software factor into this concept?

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#44

Post by Muromec » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

sipjca wrote: post #5

at first i got very excited about a new fast transcription model (voz) but turns out its just parakeet v3 with some new inference code which is macOS/iOS specific

Nice, now I know what I actually need.

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#45

Post by handfuloflight » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

Muromec wrote: post #41

handfuloflight wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not obvious and fair that they are asking you to pay them when you see success (defined as >100K MAU)? How more aligned can you and them be besides this?

When I buy I chair I don't pay a share of my income to the furniture shop when I get rich. I would buy another chair at some point too, maybe fancier one (or the same). Because chairs are commodity. I do however pay taxes to the government based on my income because it keeps doing ongoing maintenance on everything . Everyone wants to be paid forever for something they produced once is some kind of a mind virus. Make…

Analogy doesn't apply to this case, as you are paying for the chair upfront but not paying for the model weights upfront.

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#46

Post by Muromec » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:31 PM UTC

markdog12 wrote: post #27

> opinionated on-device intelligence > Hate speech triage. On-device moderation that flags hateful, abusive and threatening text What could go wrong here?

1. Not having human in the loop to review it because humans are expensive.

2. Having human in the loop to review it and subject said human to the worst other humans produce.

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#47

Post by Muromec » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:33 PM UTC

library8848 wrote: post #8

Shiny layer of marketing and proprietary code on top of open models? Voz is Parakeet 0.6B v3 Clear is DeepFilterNet 3 Ear is the language predictor from whisper-tiny ...

AI beige theme and obnoxious AI writing signaled as much.

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#48

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

1dom wrote: post #10

This is a cool way of approaching AI models. I'm a big fan of local LLMs, local specific models like this should be even more powerful. > Every model is free up to 100k monthly active devices. No tokens, no logins. I dunno about the business model though. Cloud LLM billing makes sense: you're getting another computer to do work with each request, and using their compute via their gateway that they bill you. These loc…

How would a model where you pay per each model/weight update feel like? More similar to traditional software, where you'd get the current version, maybe even free/rebated version upgrade to the next, but then have to do another purchase to get the latest version? Or something similar to that?

Feels like it'd be more aligned with how the business and users would produce and use it, it'd be something like: "We've done a bunch of research and output, here is the thing, you can buy it, and we'll work on the next, then you can pay again for the next if you'd like".

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#49

Post by Muromec » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

handfuloflight wrote: post #45

Muromec wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I buy I chair I don't pay a share of my income to the furniture shop when I get rich. I would buy another chair at some point too, maybe fancier one (or the same). Because chairs are commodity. I do however pay taxes to the government based on my income because it keeps doing ongoing maintenance on everything . Everyone wants to be paid forever for something they produced once is some kind of a mind virus. Make…

Analogy doesn't apply to this case, as you are paying for the chair upfront but not paying for the model weights upfront.

I'm also not downloading a chair, because why would it?

Re: Desert Ant Labs: local, fast models that run on device

#50

Post by embedding-shape » Wed, Sep 09, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

nater5000 wrote: post #40

I definitely think there's a lot to be done with small models dedicated to specific tasks. I've always thought the REAL value is in having large models be able to easily build small models for custom tasks (which I know is kind of a thing), but perhaps just providing the small models directly is the more accessible approach. >accessible via one SDK for Swift, Kotlin, and JavaScript Lol well let me know when there's a…

The founders and website seems to talk a lot about mobile devices and how many are being sold/shipped, that's the "unused compute power" they're targeting. So obviously mobile-first platforms and SDKs seem to be the focus first, hence those languages. Understandable, given their target, but just like you I wish there was an easier way to give it a try on a desktop computer.