There is no guarantee that hardware will remain accessible if tech corporations continue pricing people out of the market. Having a PC powerful enough to run genuinely useful local models is already a privileged position that many people in the world do not have.
While AI inference is far less dependent on large scale organization than most other forms of automation, it is not intrinsically independent the way e.g. being able to get a 3D printer is - at least until they ban those on grounds of potentially facilitating gun fabrication or such.
While AI inference is far less dependent on large scale organization than most other forms of automation, it is not intrinsically independent the way e.g. being able to get a 3D printer is - at least until they ban those on grounds of potentially facilitating gun fabrication or such.