The Privacy Game Changer: Offline Functionality of Large Language Models – privateGPT

In a landmark development marking a stride towards unprecedented data privacy, software developers are now equipped to exploit the capacities of Large Language Models (LLMs) to query their documents devoid of any internet connection. With this pioneering innovation, data privacy hits the 100% milestone, ensuring the retention of all data securely within the execution environment.

The secret formula to this advancement resides in the strategic fusion of groundbreaking technologies. Notably, LangChain, GPT4All, LlamaCpp, Chroma, and SentenceTransformers have been brilliantly intertwined, facilitating the processing of documents offline, with the probing ability in place sans any internet connection.

The first step in the process involves ingesting one’s dataset, a task which involves migrating files to the source_documents directory. The system exhibits exceptional adaptability, accommodating a vast variety of file types, inclusive of CSV, Word Document, EverNote, Email, EPub, HTML File, Markdown, Outlook Message, Open Document Text, Portable Document Format (PDF), PowerPoint Document, and UTF-8 Text files.

With the files primed in the directory, all that remains for the user is to execute the ‘python ingest.py’ command. The outcome? A freshly generated db folder, a repository for the local vector store. Notably, the ingestion duration for each document clocks at around 20-30 seconds, a timeframe that is contingent on the document’s size. Despite the capacity for limitless ingestion, the system allows for a complete reset by simply eliminating the db folder for those desiring to start afresh.

Respecting the privacy needs of the users, this system ensures that no data moves outside the local environment. The ingestion procedure can be conducted entirely offline, with the lone exception being the inaugural run of the ingest script, which mandates the download of the embeddings model.

Post ingestion, users are all set to quiz their documents, locally. By executing ‘python privateGPT.py’, and upon the script’s solicitation for input, one can submit a query. The LLM model requires around 20-30 seconds to parse the prompt and formulate a response. The system then exhibits the answer, accompanied by the four sources it engaged as context from your documents, a cycle that can be repeated endlessly without necessitating to re-run the script.

The script also accepts optional command-line arguments, providing the users with the flexibility to modify its function. A comprehensive collection of these arguments can be summoned by running ‘python privateGPT.py –help’ in the terminal.

At the heart of this privacy-centric innovation are the judicious selection of suitable local models and the employment of LangChain, ensuring the entire operation to function locally. This arrangement guarantees data retention within the user’s environment while maintaining reasonable performance.

The procedure employs two principal scripts. ‘Ingest.py’, deploying LangChain tools, parses the document, develops local embeddings utilizing HuggingFaceEmbeddings (SentenceTransformers), and retains the result in a local vector database courtesy of the Chroma vector store. Conversely, ‘privateGPT.py’ leverages a local LLM based on GPT4All-J or LlamaCpp to decipher questions and generate responses. The context for these answers is extracted from the local vector store, employing a similarity search to identify the correct piece of context from the documents.

While this system introduces a new dimension in privacy-first technology, it’s crucial to note that it is a feasibility experiment for a wholly private solution for question-answering using LLMs and Vector embeddings and is not yet ready for deployment in a production environment. It has been engineered with an emphasis on privacy over performance optimization. Nevertheless, the system demonstrates the potential to implement varied models and vector stores for performance amelioration. This innovation, symbolizing the promise of a fully private, question-answering mechanism using language models and vector embeddings, represents a significant stride in the realm of data privacy and security.

The compatibility requirements for this system are modest – Python 3.10 or a later version. For users experiencing wheel building errors during the pip install procedure, a C++ compiler might be necessitated. Comprehensive instructions to guide users through the installation of a C++ compiler on Windows 10/11 and possible issues on Mac running Intel are available.

In conclusion, the advent of this ground-breaking innovation holds considerable promise in strengthening data privacy in an increasingly digital world. As the technology continues to evolve and advance towards production readiness, the landscape of data privacy is set to transform. Today’s announcement marks a pivotal milestone, but it’s just the beginning. As developers continue to leverage these technologies, one can expect the future of data privacy to be more robust and reliable than ever before.

https://github.com/imartinez/privateGPT

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