A lot of companies and research institutes in the EU would like to be able to use a locally hosted LLM for their employees so they don't have to worry what data they give away.
Also it is not rational for any individual to buy the hardware for running a serious LLM and then let it idle 99.9% of the day.
I am not up to date with the models, but I have heard good stories about a couple of open source models. You should ask Simon Willis. I hope he will be summoned (@simonw).
Also it is not rational for any individual to buy the hardware for running a serious LLM and then let it idle 99.9% of the day.