Hi all, I’m just getting into tech, both hardware and software, and have no formal training- very green. I’ve had many folks suggest I use AI for coding purposes but so far I’ve avoided AI overall due to environmental and ethical use concerns, among other reasons.

Because I am exploring this new hobby and it keeps coming up I wanted some more experienced/familiar opinions about the variety of AI program that exists only within a personal computer rather than as part of a corporate cloud.

Are there any you’d suggest for someone in my shoes? Any you’d warn me away from? Anything I should be aware of when choosing hardware for a computer likely to have such a tool installed?

My mid-length goal is to set up a NAS and play with some VMs, in addition to storage and media uses. I hope to experiment with multiple OS in this way while incurring minimal risk to my primary computer. Are there considerations that come up when using the programs in this context rather than on a single isolated PC?

I’d also be very interested in harm reduction solutions that help reduce the social and structural cost of using AI if folks have tips or info resources on the subject.

Thank you!