How to Develop Your Personal AI Assistant Using LocalGPT

LocalGPT is a tool that allows you to talk to your files on your computer using big language models and natural language processing. It’s like having a personal AI helper that can answer questions from your documents, using big language models and InstructorEmbeddings. This article shows how to develop a personal AI assistant with LocalGPT.

Have you ever wanted to chat with your documents and ask them things even when you’re not online? Do you wish you had an AI assistant that can help with your tasks and projects while keeping your info private? If you said yes, you’ll want to know about LocalGPT.

This article explains what LocalGPT is, why it’s useful to develop a personal AI assistant with LocalGPT, how to set up LocalGPT, how to put documents into it, how to chat with your documents, and what’s good and not so good about it.

Table of Contents

1. What is LocalGPT?
2. Why Make a Personal AI Assistant with LocalGPT?
3. How to Set Up LocalGPT?
4. How to Add Documents to LocalGPT?
5. How to Talk to Your Documents with LocalGPT?
6. Pros of Using LocalGPT
7. Cons of Using LocalGPT
8. FAQs
9. Conclusion

What is LocalGPT?

LocalGPT is a tool inspired by privateGPT. It lets you talk to your documents on your own device using GPT models. None of your data goes to other places, so it’s super private. You can ask questions to your documents without being connected to the internet, thanks to big language models.

LocalGPT is built with LangChain and Vicuna-7B, which are open-source frameworks for building NLP applications. It also uses InstructorEmbeddings, which help the language models give good answers. LocalGPT works with different file types like .txt, .pdf, .csv, and can look through lots of documents.

Why Develop a Personal AI Assistant with LocalGPT?

Privacy: With LocalGPT, your data stays on your device. You can talk to your documents without sharing things with other servers, so your private info is safe.

Customization: You can create an AI helper that fits you. Choose which documents to put into LocalGPT and how to organize them. You can even change how your AI assistant acts by adjusting settings.

Offline Use: With LocalGPT, you can talk to your documents anytime, anywhere, without needing the internet. It works on devices like laptops, desktops, or even Raspberry Pi.

App Building: LocalGPT has an API you can use to make apps that use big language models and NLP. Connect LocalGPT with other tools like web frameworks, voice assistants, or chatbots. You can add new things to LocalGPT to make it do more.

How to Set Up LocalGPT?

To start with LocalGPT, you’ll need these: Python 3.8 or newer, Pip, Conda, and CUDA (if you want to use it). Follow these steps:

1. Get the LocalGPT code from GitHub.

git clone https://github.com/PromtEngineer/localGPT.git

2. Create a conda environment like this:

conda create -n localgpt_api python=3.10.0

3. Activate the conda environment:

conda activate localgpt

4. Install everything needed:

pip install -r requirements.txt

For faster work, you can use your GPU with CUDA. You’ll need CUDA 11 or higher and some settings for llama-cpp, a library used by LocalGPT. Run CMAKE_ARGS="-DLLAMA_CUBLAS=on" FORCE_CMAKE=1 pip install -r requirements.txt

You can also use Docker. You’ll need Docker, BuildKit, Nvidia GPU driver, and Nvidia container toolkit. Build the Docker image with docker build . -t localgpt and run it with docker run -it --mount src="$HOME/.cache",target=/root/.cache,type=bind --gpus=all localgpt

How to Add Documents to LocalGPT?

To talk to your documents using LocalGPT, do this:

1. Put: the documents you want to talk to in the SOURCE_DOCUMENTS folder in LocalGPT. You can use .txt, .pdf, .csv, or .xlsx files. If you have other file types, change them to supported ones.
2. Run ingest.py with: python ingest.py This makes an index file called index.llama in localGPTUI. It has info about your documents.

You can give some options to ingest.py, like device type (–device_type), batch size (–batch_size), workers (–num_workers), and how much it tells you (–verbosity). For example, use python ingest.py –device_type cpu if you want to use CPU instead of GPU.

How to Talk to Your Documents with LocalGPT?

To chat with your documents, do this:

1. Run: python run_localGPT_API.py to start the LocalGPT API. It shows a GUI to talk with LocalGPT. You get a link at the bottom.
2. Open a web browser and go to: http://localhost:5111/
3. Pick a document to chat with from the list. It shows details about the document and a preview.
4. Type your question in the box at the bottom and press search. LocalGPT uses the LLM and InstructorEmbeddings to answer from the document. You’ll see the answer, time, and how hard the question was.
5. You can keep chatting and switch documents. Clear chat history with the Clear button.

Pros of Using LocalGPT

• Privacy: Your data never leaves your device.
• Customization: You make an AI helper that fits you.
• Offline use: Talk to your documents anywhere, anytime, without the internet.
• App building: Use LocalGPT to make cool apps with big language models.

Cons of Using LocalGPT

• Needs resources: LocalGPT uses a lot of memory, storage, CPU, GPU. You need a good device.
• Answer quality: Sometimes LocalGPT makes not-so-good answers. Use your judgment.
• File compatibility: LocalGPT works with some file types. Convert others first.

FAQs

Is LocalGPT Personal AI Assistant Safe?

LocalGPT is safe because it’s all on your device. No data goes to other servers.

Is LocalGPT Personal AI Assistant Accurate?

LocalGPT uses big language models for answers. Sometimes it’s not perfect.

Can LocalGPT Handle Big Tasks?

It can handle different document sizes, but your device limits it.

Conclusion

This article showed develop a personal AI assistant with LocalGPT. Talk to your documents on your device, keeping things private and just for you. Now you know how to use LocalGPT to build your AI helper for work and personal tasks.

Also read our article Chat GPT Login: How To Sign Up, Login and Use (Ultimate Guide)