Using wiki software, old photos, family stories, bank transactions, social media posts, and an LLM to sift through everything to build a personal encyclopedia.
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 8
thread
latest
popular
I'm skittish on an LLM sifting through my data like this.
Agreed. The idea of making a wikipedia of your personal life events is fun, and the first part of the article really appeals to me. But having an LLM generate it *for* you devalues it, I think. The author seems to learn from and value his interaction with his relatives and photographs more when they're an experience rather than a product. Wikipedia itself doesn't allow AI-generated content anymore, and I don't see much appeal beyond novelty in viewing a reconstruction of my life that a machine churned out. Ask me again when/if my memory fails.
You could easily use a local LLM for this so your data doesn't ever leave your computer (or your server) — that addresses the privacy concern at least.
I’m seeing more and more use cases for these (small) user-owned, un-networked LLMs for specific goals, which appeal to me far more than anything Silicon Valley is offering. Reminds me of the Techdirt piece you posted earlier in the week
It's frustrating that projects like these rarely talk about the costs. The LLM produced reams of documentation, but I have no idea if this could be done using a $20/month plan or if it cost thousands of dollars in API tokens.
totally agree and always wonder the same...
I was wondering the same thing about cost Andy — but the project itself is right up my personal alley. I've been working on a personal wiki for awhile now but it is very time consuming!
This is weirdly coincidental with me reading about this, by Andrej Karpathy, which has gone pretty viral recently. It's about building personal knowledge bases using LLMs and plain text files, but the concept is very similar and giving it a go for a while very much appeals to my tinkering side... as does this personal wiki type thing if I'm honest.
Hello! In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!