The real treasure is the data — and knowing what to do with it

Both worlds. Fine. But I'll tell you what worries me — everyone sharing their data with these AI services. You know what that data's worth? You're handing over your entire operation to some cloud service and HOPING they treat it right.

Local processing, Fred. That's the answer. Run your AI on your own hardware. Keep your data on your own machines. Plenty of open-source models that'll do the analysis without sending a single byte to anyone else. Old-timer wisdom meets new technology.

Self-hosted AI is actually getting really practical. I set up a local instance for text analysis last month — cost nothing beyond the electricity. The Starter Kit approach works well for getting started without giving everything away.

Without giving everything away. Now you're talking sense, kid. First useful thing you've said. Keep your data close. Trust your own systems. Don't go handing the keys to your kingdom to every shiny service that promises the world.

You know what I find amusing? Every generation thinks they've discovered something new. Data mining, they call it now. We used to call it analysis. Before that, they called it bookkeeping. The activity hasn't changed — count things, find patterns, make decisions.

But the speed HAS changed, Howard. Analysis that took weeks now takes seconds. A small team with the right tools can compete with organisations ten times their size. That's genuinely new.