> Why do you think the public wants to self host models over using a cheaper solution hosted in the cloud?

you aren't truly in control of your compute in the cloud, and if you came to become reliant on ai, the cloud company could simply turn it off for you and you'd be shit outta luck. Unlike a regulated utility like electricity and water, where you cannot be discriminated against based on how you use said utility.

Therefore, having the ability to run local ai is a good thing. Currently, hardware constraints have kept it out of most hobbyist's hand, but i am hoping that will change soon enough (within 2-3 yrs).

The mega corps are looking to regulate ai such that individuals cannot run their private ai themselves, so that they can become more effective a monopoly. That's why it is crucial that ai is not regulated, but companies providing ai.

Almost all the non-tech people I know acknowledge concerns about privacy but have no realistic alternative available to them. I think they won't want to self host until and unless it's easy to deploy, there's nothing to administrate, and the hardware cost is in the same ballpark as a new laptop was prior to the apocalypse.

Because the public prefers to use ad funded Google search over hosting a tiny web search index you can fit in memory. :)

Personally, the biggest reason is that if I'm investing in my business, and the business is going to rely on AI models, I need them hosted locally on my own hardware in a replicable way. The reason being is, if the AI subscription service changes the model, or drops support for it, or worse (goes out of business), you're done.

Subscriptions are almost never actually cheaper.