The author argues that as AI models become powerful enough to run locally, we should build a new era of personal computing centered on user data ownership rather than cloud subscriptions and corporate lock-in. This shift would let people control their own computing environments, move between services freely, and reclaim the creative potential that defined early personal computers before the web became dominated by ads and extraction.

• Open AI models running on personal devices could break the lock-in dynamics that destroyed the early web, forcing AI companies to compete on performance and cost rather than trapping users through platform effects.
• Data ownership as the core principle solves privacy problems and enables new capabilities—like instantly finding anything across your digital life—that centralized cloud services can't provide.
• Personal Computing 2.0 should be cross-platform and multi-vendor, letting users mix different AI tools together, script them, and migrate instantly between providers without losing access to their work and memories.