Perplexity and Nvidia Launch 'Portable Computer,' a Local AI Agent That Runs Powerful Models Directly on Desktop Hardware

Perplexity and Nvidia launch 'Portable Computer,' a local AI agent running powerful open models directly on desktop hardware via Nvidia's DGX Spark, promising lower costs, faster speeds, and greater privacy as a bold challenger to cloud-based AI from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.

• Perplexity is launching 'Portable Computer,' a local AI agent built in partnership with Nvidia that runs open models directly on desktop hardware, offering users reduced token costs, faster performance, and enhanced data privacy.
• The product runs on Nvidia's DGX Spark machine, a compact but powerful device with 128GB of unified memory and up to a petaflop of compute, and will initially support Linux before expanding to Windows and more powerful hardware like the DGX Station.
• Perplexity is focused on simplifying the notoriously complex setup process for local AI, launching with a custom model called PPLX 27B and aiming to make local agent deployment accessible enough to compete with cloud-based solutions from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.