• What's Up in AI
  • Posts
  • 🎯 The LLM That Works Anywhere (Even Where Wi-Fi Doesn’t)

🎯 The LLM That Works Anywhere (Even Where Wi-Fi Doesn’t)

In partnership with

Welcome Back, AI Geeks!

This is Edition #19 of the Weekly Tool Deep Dive 🔍️ 

Today's deep dive is different. Instead of hyping the latest shiny tools, we're focusing on one that actually solved real problems this week.

We have added copy-paste prompts, real examples from people who used them, and zero fluff. No "revolutionary AI-powered solutions" - just practical tools that get stuff done.

Here's the deal: Set a timer for 15 minutes today and actually try it. Don't bookmark this and forget about it like we all do.

Let's dive in and solve some problems.

Find out why 1M+ professionals read Superhuman AI daily.

In 2 years you will be working for AI

Or an AI will be working for you

Here's how you can future-proof yourself:

  1. Join the Superhuman AI newsletter – read by 1M+ people at top companies

  2. Master AI tools, tutorials, and news in just 3 minutes a day

  3. Become 10X more productive using AI

Join 1,000,000+ pros at companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon that are using AI to get ahead.

🚀 What is it?

Qwen helps you run ChatGPT-style AI models completely offline, giving you full control - no cloud, no tokens, no leaks, no limits. It’s like having your own private, programmable AI assistant living on your machine.

Here’s the twist:
Qwen AI is developed by Alibaba, and its largest model (Qwen-72B) beat Meta’s LLaMA-2 and Mistral in benchmarks, while being 100% open-source.

It’s not just another local LLM, it’s China’s quiet answer to OpenAI, now available for anyone, anywhere.

🌟 Who’s it for?

  • 💼 Startup founders who want an AI co-pilot without exposing IP
    → Run Qwen locally to draft pitches, summarize research, or explore user feedback privately

  • 🎓Students and researchers working with sensitive academic data
    → Use Qwen-1.8B on your laptop to analyze papers or generate ideas—offline, distraction-free

  • 👨‍💻 Developers building AI into products
    → Embed Qwen into customer support bots, note-taking tools, or personal CRMs with full control

  • 🕵️ Privacy-first users
    → Use Qwen via WebLLM to chat in-browser with zero data leaving your device

  • 🎙️ Content creators on the go
    → Run Qwen-0.5B on a MacBook Air to generate scripts or outlines mid-flight, with no WiFi needed

⚙️ How to use it?

No coding needed—just pick the setup that fits your device:

Step 1: Pick a model size from Qwen’s lineup

Go small (Qwen-0.5B) if you're on a basic laptop, or go big (Qwen-7B to 72B) if you have a powerful machine.
→ You can download them from Hugging Face or ModelScope.

Step 2: Use one of these easy tools to run it:

  • 🖥 Ollama – The easiest way to run Qwen locally with a simple app-like experience (Mac/Windows)

  • ⚙️ LMDeploy– Great for running large models efficiently with GPU support (for advanced users)

  • 🌐 WebLLM – Run Qwen in your browser, no install, no internet required

  • 🧱 vLLM – Ideal for scaling Qwen on servers or in production settings

Step 3: Start chatting or creating


Once it’s running, use it to brainstorm, write, translate, summarize, or build with—all offline.

Step 4: Customize it if you want


Advanced users can fine-tune Qwen on their own data, or embed it into internal tools and workflows using open APIs (It’s a bit complicated though).

💸 Pricing

Well you probably already know this by now.  

  • Free and open-source.

  • No sign-up, no tokens are required.

  • Small models work on laptops; large ones need a strong GPU.

  • No cloud costs either way.

👥Examples

  1. I can't believe it actually runs - Qwen 235b @ 16GB VRAM

  1. is Qwen 30B-A3B the best model to run locally right now?

  2. Qwen 2.5-Coder-32B-Instruct - a review after several days with it

💡 Let’s be Real

If you’ve explored Mistral, LLaMA 2, or Gemma, Qwen might feel like the quiet underdog. It brings unique strengths to the table:

Qwen is a great choice if you want to...

  • Build a private coding assistant with clean, logical output

  • Work in or translate Asian languages (Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, etc.)

  • Run multimodal projects (images, video, etc.) with one unified model

  • Use a large model without relying on US tech infrastructure

  • Tinker, build, or deploy AI on your own terms with full access to weights and APIs

🚫 Skip it if you want...

  • The most creative, idea-generating model (try GPT-4 or Claude)

  • A tiny, blazing-fast model for mobile (Mistral 7B might fit better)

  • Heavy community plugins or tooling support (LLaMA and Mistral have more ecosystem right now)

📣 Before You Bounce...

Hit reply and let us know:

🔥 "This was exactly what I needed - more tool breakdowns!"

👍 "Good stuff, keep these coming"

🤷 "Not my vibe, but appreciate the effort"

Know someone drowning in explanation requests? Share this with them - they'll thank you later.

We’ll be back soon with more spicy takes on What’s Happening in AI, so stay tuned & share our newsletter with a friend using this link!

Stay curious! 🤖 
What's Up in AI Team