Beyond the cloud: SLMs, local AI, agentic constellations, biology and a high value direction for AI progress

We’ve all heard it — “the future of AI is in the cloud.” But the real story is that the future might be smaller, closer, and more personal. From Small Language Models (SLMs) to localfirst AI, agentic constellations, and even bioinspired designs, the next big leap in AI isn’t about scale.