many components of computers have to be manufactured in large-scale, distant factories, but that doesn't make local-first software not a great idea.

some aspects of the training of AI systems may necessarily be large-scale and distant (and perhaps regulated or even public), but that doesn't make local-first AI a bad idea.

the closer to locally controlled your computation (defined socially more than geographically), the more likely it is to tilt toward the liberatory rather than the dystopian.