If you want to have an AI agent manage your local filesystem for you, would it be safer to run a local agent like OpenClaw vs cloud-based like Perplexity?

If you run local models only....then yes MUCH safer, in that you also likely have much more control to limit the agent(s) to the degree you are comfortable with....

You can isolate the agents, limit their access to anything on a system and limit it to little if any external access.

It all comes with trade-offs....you get less of that whiz-bang automation it can do for you, but you risk privacy, fiscal loss, etc.....so you have to strike the balance you can live with.

It shouldn't be difficult to make it so existing files can not be modified by the AI. Read-only access for the AI would take care of a lot of this, then make it so you can change the stuff that the AI generated also be read-only to prevent the AI from breaking stuff you have decided to use and don't want it to be modified further by AI.

I've been looking into the OpenClaw agent thing...and a lot of what I'm reading indeed points to at least starting out with read only and least privs approach,,,so yes I can't see why it can't be done.

Too much history of AI just data grabbing to feed the AI

I don't know about this commercial offering...but with the open source "OpenClaw" set up, you can use local models running on your own hardware and with guard rails, keep your data private.

With the Apple silicon boxes...it's amazing what you can get to run these days....as far as local models.

This aspect of home AI computing is getting quite interesting....especially if it keeps progressing where you can do this more and more locally and depend less on hooking to commercial AI cloud servers/services...

For those who use Photoshop, you can't really argue with the results, but when looking at the "CPU performance", comparing in-program or in-game benchmarks on different operating systems.

And, if you really want performance at a price that can't be beat (free)....

Take a look at Affinity...the photo tool there does what PS does, but with newer designed engine...faster and cheaper.

Most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same and you can change those that aren't...and most functions are the same way, or you might have to look at a different button of function name, but that's no big deal if you try and use it for a couple weeks....

I dunno why anyone bothers with Adobe still.....but hey, if. Nothing else, give it a try...don't cost ya nothing....

So...basically this is a Commercial OpenClaw offering, eh?

You are right: the subsidies to fossil fuels companies should stop. I assume you are aware of the fact that they are getting millions upon millions of dollars from the federal government every year, are you?

Really?

I keep hearing about these so called subsidies to oil companies .

Can you show me any....or even one line item in the ball park of "$1,000,000 to Shell Oil for oil production"?

I'm sorry, business write offs like any other business can take advantage of are not "oil subsidies"...which ones in the publically published budgets annually from the Feds are the Oil subsidies?

I"ll wait...

moslem

Oops....typo.

It's truly astonishing that people write that kind of stuff without the slightest hint of irony, isn't it? After Trump has used military force against two oil producing countries in less than six months, and announced he's just going to take Venezuelan oil without compensation (although being an idiot, he's neglected to get the oil majors on board)

Actually, the true story here is...Trump cut off oil from Venezuela to countries that are our foes....China being the largest one.

He also helped cut off Moslem countries' interests that were growing there, again...not something we want as major influence in our hemisphere.

$22 for a single ticket? GTFO with that shit.

What do you expect when some cities are pushing for $15-$30/hr minimum wage???

Someone has to pay for that....

I'm guessing you don't have a clue just how bizarre such a statement sounds to most people in civilized countries outside the USA.

You probably don't have a clue as to what I or other American's think of what you think of our constitutional rights.....some day you may wish you had them.

The intent of the current system is to make the US sufficiently inhospitable to foreign nationals that they don't come.

You left out a word at the end there....ILLEGALLY

Yes, trying to make it as inhospitable as possible for folks coming illegally.

We need to enforce no work and no housing for illegals too I think that would be much more effective....

And as for you, as long as. You're not coming to the US and hanging out in front of the local Home Depot soliciting trucks for "day labor"....you're going to be just fine.

Ok...while I can understand everyday users not knowing what they're getting into with OpenClaw....even after these weeks of internet warnings about handing the keys to it without guard rails...

I can't fathom users at banks and government facilities installing this, much less even having their computers not locked down by default to prevent this?!?!

I'm about to start experimenting with it...have a Mac Mini 24GB on the way....it will be dedicated to OC...and run small model, etc....using docker, etc...trying to isolate it while learning and experimenting.

But wow....banks and govt offices in China throwing this on Willy nilly?

Coming from the UK - a country that never even had to abolish slavery because it was never legal here

Maybe not on the mainland, but it was tolerated and participated in by the lands of the greater British empire back in the day.....

or life terms without parole for smoking a joint.

PULEESE....this just does not happen, please cite something to back this wild ass claim up.

And, unless you are committing a crime, assaulting police, or say, buying drugs in the "hood"...you're chances of getting shot don't even register on the statistical scale.

I promise you, not a single one of my many many firearms have spontaneously jumped up and fired and harmed anyone.

Not even when I regularly carry one concealed because I want to.

You don't see a problem with being arrested by an immigration enforcement agency as a US citizen? You think that eventually being released is a meaningful remedy?

Of course I do, BUT...mistakes can be made with any law enforcement encounter.

And every lawyer advises that you don't resist or fight, you argue it in court.

And, it isn't like this is happening in truly meaningful numbers...geez. Shit happens from time to time....these that happen are barely statistically meaningful....

Plugging multiple rounds into U.S. citizens who piss them off

No one has been "plugged" or shot for just pissing them off.....the ones who have been were actively trying to prevent the officers from their duty, assaulting them and threatening their lives.