Trying local AI models became way easier after I installed this app

AI is more popular than ever, and there are dozens of exciting uses, from speech replication and synthesis to 3D modeling. None of this means anything if getting them up and running is too much trouble.

Normally, launching a new model is tedious enough that I don’t do it unless I know I want to use it. This is where Pinokio comes in.

Self-hosted AI is better than ever

A few years ago, it took a small supercomputer just to generate a nightmarish video of Will Smith eating spaghetti, but that’s changed.

Using home equipment, especially gaming computers or M-series Macs with lots of unified RAM, you can create realistic images in seconds, generate 3D models and their textures, clone and produce realistic human voices, and even run your own private version of ChatGPT.

This has opened up countless exciting possibilities if you’re into DIY, self-hosting, or homelab. You can create your own Alexa replacement. You could ask anyone in the world to read you a Wikipedia article. You’re really only limited by your PC’s hardware and how creatively you can put together different AI models.

Even though these programs are free, they have one big problem: they are difficult to run. You usually have to struggle with setting up a virtual environment for each, fetching the correct dependencies, and sometimes figuring out which UI it’s using.

There is an app that solves this problem.

Pinokio makes it easier to try new AI

Pinokio is a free and open source application that provides a convenient way to try almost every AI model available. For any given AI, it uses a script to automate the installation and configuration process, so the only thing you really need to do is press Install and then Open.

Finding and using Pinokio scripts

Pinokio also works as an AI model browser, in addition to managing the installation. Once installed, launch it and head to the “Discover” tab. I would recommend sticking to verified scripts to start.

Once you find a template you like, click on it and select “One-click install with Pinokio”. Often this will involve downloading several gigabytes of dependencies, as well as the template itself, and then installing them. If it seems to hang or freeze, give it some time: it’s probably just doing something behind the scenes.

Each AI model will have a different user interface, depending on what it does. For example, this is OpenAudio, a speech cloning and synthesis model.

Uninstall Pinokio AI

If you decide you no longer want a template, Pinokio can also handle the uninstallation and cleanup for you. Head to the AI ​​in question, then click “Delete” near the top.

If something goes wrong during installation, removing and reinstalling the AI ​​can also be a useful troubleshooting step.

Is Pinokio safe?

Pinokio is community-run with community scripts, so it’s always possible that someone with bad intentions could exploit the system to do something malicious. However, the scripts used are quite simple, making them easy for Pinokio administrators to audit.

Even if they missed something, Pinokio is very popular among AI enthusiasts, so any type of malware would likely be detected and removed fairly quickly.

What are the best open source AI models?

Pinokio automatically sorts by popularity, so you can get a general idea of ​​what’s most popular. popular. That doesn’t necessarily make them the best. For better or worse (and I’ll say it’s fun), you’ll have to try them for yourself. I recently experimented with OpenAudio and created a custom narrator for books with some success.

If you spend time running AI models, you’ll probably also run into a storage issue. Large language models like Gemma and Qwen can easily reach tens of gigabytes, and most of the AIs I’ve tried at Pinokio are in that same range. When I built my new PC, I specifically chose a larger NVMe SSD for this reason. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it will make your life easier if you spend a lot of time playing with AI models.