A note before you listen: this episode's deep dive was produced in NotebookLM. NotebookLM is our executive producer. It also mispronounces Ollama as "Alama" about forty times. We use AI to talk about AI. When the AI hits its limit, we point at it instead of hiding it.
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Three recipes for a voice assistant that doesn't have to phone home.
Recipe 1 takes ten minutes — a browser-based Jarvis you can run today.
Recipe 2 takes thirty minutes — a one-command local install with Ollama.
Recipe 3 takes a weekend — Home Assistant Voice PE, replacing Alexa entirely.
I built one. I read the receipts on two more. Here's what each actually costs in time, money, and trade-offs.
Read the full article: https://aifrankly.substack.com/p/the-local-jarvis
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - The Smart Home Illusion
03:30 - Recipe 1: The Browser Jarvis
07:45 - The Browser API Privacy Trap
12:00 - Recipe 2: The One-Command Jarvis
15:30 - Why It Knows When You Stop Talking
18:15 - The Hardware Reality Check
22:00 - Recipe 3: The Whole-Home Jarvis
26:45 - The Frustrating Five-Second Delay
30:00 - The Honest Bill
32:15 - The Partner Test
34:30 - Local Is Not a Security Policy
36:45 - Auditing Microphone Vulnerabilities
40:30 - High-End and Cloud Alternatives
44:15 - Am I Tony Stark?
RECEIPTS:
- Ollama: https://ollama.com
- Home Assistant Voice PE: https://www.home-assistant.io/voice_control/
- Kokoro TTS: https://github.com/hexgrad/kokoro
- NetworkChuck's local AI tutorials: youtube.com/@NetworkChuck
- Eddie Chen's voice assistant builds: youtube.com/@EddieChen
- Smart Home Solver's HA Voice PE testing: youtube.com/@SmartHomeSolver
AI Frankly. Built from parts. Owned outright.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aifrankly.substack.com