Building A Digital Brain w/ OpenWebUI

Open WebUI
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I’ve found an open source project called OpenWebUI that offers me most if not all of the things I want to build my digital brain.

And it does so in a manner that does not require me to be a developer to set it up:

  • It provides an interface similar to ChatGPT that I can use to communicate with my digital brain.

  • It provides the ability to use AI models that I host locally on my computer, as well as to hook into any open or closed source model that I can access via an API.

  • And it comes with knowledge storage that I can also host locally on my computer or in my own private cloud so I have full ownership and control over my data.

And it is fully open source which means that once I download the software I own and control it and no one else can (unless I want them to).

Here is a recording of my discussion with Beck going over my initial thoughts on OpenWebUI and why I think it may be a great option that anyone can use to create, control, and benefit from their own digital brain.

And here is a summary of the primary items discussed:

Here’s a summary of the main items discussed in the transcript:

  1. Open Web UI:
  • An open-source project that provides a front-end interface for AI interactions
  • Has a community of contributors (around 193) and is actively developed
  • Supports multiple AI models, including OpenAI and open-source models
  • Includes features like web search, vision capabilities, and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
  1. Privacy and Data Concerns:
  • Discussion on how to ensure data privacy when using AI services
  • Options considered: using OpenAI directly, using a private cloud setup, or data masking/filtering
  1. Hosting Options:
  • Decided to use Google Cloud for hosting due to familiarity and pricing transparency
  • Plan to host open-source models (like Llama 3.1) and Open Web UI in the cloud
  • Discussed the possibility of using smaller, fine-tuned models for specific tasks (e.g., food diary)
  1. Technical Setup:
  • Plan to set up a private cloud environment to host AI models and Open Web UI
  • Considered using Docker for easier deployment and environment management
  • Discussed the use of vector databases (like Chroma DB) for document storage and retrieval
  1. Next Steps:
  • The developer will review the Open Web UI codebase and assess its suitability for the project
  • Set up a Google Cloud account and invite the developer as an admin
  • Schedule a follow-up call on Friday to discuss findings and progress
  1. Project Vision:
  • Building a personal AI assistant with a focus on health and privacy
  • Interest in creating a community around open-source, privacy-focused AI tools
  1. Cost Considerations:
  • Estimated monthly costs for cloud hosting (around $100-$150 for personal use)
  • Discussion on balancing model size, performance, and hosting costs

The conversation concluded with both parties expressing excitement about the potential of using Open Web UI to accelerate the project’s development.

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I’m going to be doing a full walkthrough of how I set up OpenWebUI but here is a video covering the setup for anyone who wants to get started ahead of that: