AI is more popular than ever, and there are dozens of great applications ranging from voice replication and synthesis to 3D modeling. None of this means anything if getting them up and running is too much of a challenge.
Usually launching a new model is so overwhelming that I don't do it until I know I want to use it. And then Pinocchio comes to the rescue.
Self-driving AI is better than ever
A few years ago, you needed a small supercomputer just to create a nightmare video of Will Smith eating spaghetti, but things have changed.
Using home hardware, especially gaming PCs or M-series Macs with lots of unified RAM, you can create realistic images in seconds, generate 3D models and their textures, clone and reproduce realistic human voices, and even run your own version of ChatGPT.
This has opened up countless exciting possibilities whether you're into mastering, self-hosting or home labs. You can create your own Alexa replacement. You can ask anyone in the world to read you a Wikipedia article. You're really only limited by your PC's hardware and how creatively you can put together different AI models.
Even though these programs are free, they have one big problem: they are difficult to run. Usually you have to fight setting up a virtual environment for everyonegetting the dependencies right, and sometimes figuring out what UI it's using.
There is an application that solves this.
Pinokio makes it easy to try out new AI
Pinocchio is a free, open-source application that provides a convenient way to try out almost any artificial intelligence model out there. For any given AI, it uses a script to automate the installation and configuration process, so the only thing you really have to do is click Install and then Open.
Finding and using Pinokio scripts
Apart from performing the installation, Pinokio also functions as an AI-powered browser. Once installed, launch it and go to the Discovery tab. I would recommend sticking to proven scripts to start with.
Once you find a model you like, click it and select “One-Click Install with Pinokio.” This often requires downloading several gigabytes of dependencies, as well as the model itself, and then installing them. If it seems to freeze or freeze, wait a moment – it may just be doing something behind the scenes.
Each AI model will have a different user interface, depending on what it does. For example, this is OpenAudio – a model for voice cloning and synthesis.
Removing AI from Pinokio
If you decide you no longer need the model, Pinokio can also handle the removal and cleaning for you. Navigate to the relevant AI, then click “Delete” at the top.
If something goes wrong during installation, uninstalling and reinstalling AI can also be a useful troubleshooting step.
Is Pinocchio safe?
Pinokio is a community-run, community-scripted community, so there is always the possibility that someone with bad intentions could use the system to do something malicious. However, the scripts used are quite simple, making them easy for Pinokio administrators to test.
Even if they miss something, Pinokio is quite popular among AI enthusiasts, so any malware will likely be detected and removed fairly quickly.
What are the best open source AI models?
Pinokio automatically sorts by popularity, so you can have a rough idea of what's most popular popular. However, this does not necessarily make them the best. For better or worse (and I would call it fun), you'll have to try them out for yourself. I've recently been experimenting with OpenAudio and creating my own book narrator with some success.
If you spend any time working with AI models, you'll likely run into storage issues as well. Large language models like Gemma and Qwen can easily reach tens of gigabytes, and most of the AI I've tried from Pinokio falls in the same range. For this reason, when I built my new computer, I specifically chose a larger NVMe SSD. This isn't strictly necessary, but it will make your life easier if you spend a lot of time fiddling with AI models.
