Ask HN: Anyone want to collaborate on a local-first AI-based research assistant
TL;DR
Sophomore developer Venkatram is building a local-first alternative to proprietary AI research assistants — essentially NotebookLM running on your own local AI model. The tool aims to turn documents into reusable, searchable assets while preserving the full information content of the original sources. The project is still very early and Venkatram is actively looking for collaborators. Code is on GitHub at venkatram-s/gigabook-lm.
Nauti's Take
Refreshing to see Venkatram actually shipping code on a privacy-sensitive niche — a fully local NotebookLM-style assistant could be a real win for users who can't push documents to OpenAI. The catch: the project is at day-zero, solo, and with two HN points there is no real validation that the architecture holds up.
Worth watching for tinkerers and RAG hackers who want to contribute — anyone needing a production tool today should stick with NotebookLM.
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