I’m terrible with updates… but EphBot is live this semester (Fall 2024)!
To quote the project documentation I developed this summer:
EphBot aims to provide the Williams College community with a hands-on, self-contained language model for experimentation, research, and educational purposes. By leveraging the Raspberry Pi 5, we offer a local alternative to cloud-based genAI applications, addressing data privacy concerns and promoting exploration of AI sustainability, capacity, user experience design, and other areas.
EphBot combines the excellent Llamafile project from Mozilla Builders with the Raspberry Pi 5, a Kill-a-Watt meter, and some crafty *nix-fu to make the whole kit a headless plug-and-play hotspot for students and faculty to be more than “users” of LLMs, but have access to a local, adjustable model (AI2’s OLMo to be exact) for substantive research.
It’s listed in the Sawyer Library’s Equipment Loan Center inventory – go check it out!
Many thanks to OIT, the Academic Technology Services Team, the Makerspace, and the Libraries for all the support.