From Work Station to Think Station: Local AI and the Reconstitution of Professional Computing
A researcher sits at a desk with a local model open beside a private archive of PDFs, notes, drafts, and correspondence. A small-business owner sits at another desk, retrieving policy language, summarizing internal files, and drafting responses — without sending a single confidential document to a remote server. These two desks look ordinary. They are not. They mark a shift in the meaning of professional computing that is technical, institutional, and epistemic at once. This essay examines what that shift is, why it matters, and what it demands of those who work with knowledge for a living. – by Dr. Christopher Chung 鍾炳權博士