About
About us
We're AI sceptics, but we're not anti-AI.
AI is a tool, which in recent years has exploded in capability and has the power to fundamentally alter the way we work into a brighter paradigm. Like any tool, what matters is how it is used. Go Local AI started because businesses should be able to use AI without giving up control of their data, accepting unpredictable costs or ignoring what the technology takes from the world. Harm reduction sits at the centre of what we do. We look for ways to make AI useful while reducing the avoidable damage it can cause.
We want to give businesses and institutions a real alternative to implement AI with a clear conscience. The more organisations that choose an ethical and sustainable implementation instead of defaulting to a cloud provider's offering, the less harm AI is actively doing, and the more it serves everyone, not just the few. That means right-sized models, clear data boundaries, genuinely renewable hosting, no training on your data, no ties to the defence industry and direct support for people most affected by the negative impacts of AI.
Our founders
Athena
LinkedInAthena has spent the last few years helping small businesses update their IT, cloud implementation, and reducing their environmental impact. This transformed into the idea for Go Local AI after her benchmarking of open-weight models became a deep working knowledge of inference architecture, model evaluation, and analysis of the sustainability claims most providers would rather not talk about. Having previously worked across sales, as a freelance creative and inside the tech industry, she has spent years following the rise of large language models with equal parts interest and scepticism, particularly their impact on the creative industries she calls home.
Maya
Maya is an architect whose practice focuses on sustainability and integrating technology into the direct facets of the spaces we inhabit. Frustrated by the implementations and limitations of cloud AI providers, she turned to self-implementation of local open-weight models directly into workflows at previous practices. Along with running Go Local AI, she also oversees our upcoming artist outreach and support initiatives, and is also pursuing further education within the field of machine learning models and adaptive systems.
Our technical and business advisors
Diego Bonaparte
Diego is Senior Vice President at Into Global, where he is focused on implementing AI into education while currently completing a master's degree focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning. He has more than 25 years of experience across software, cloud services, IT infrastructure, managed services and international technology sales. He has founded and led a software company, managed implementation and data centre operations, and held senior technology leadership roles, including at Fujitsu and Siemens.
Diego Bonaparte on LinkedIn