ColIA
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Hi! We're ColIA

An open-source AI lab and community from Colombia. We learn by building in the open, and what we make runs on your own computer.

Rubén Salas2 min read
Illustration of Colombian landscapes with the ColIA logo in the center: a macaw, a condor, a snow-capped peak, wax palms, a country house, coffee, an orchid, the sea and a pink river dolphin
Colombia, from the mountains to the sea and the rainforest. Illustration.

What ColIA is

The name joins two parts: Col, from Colombia, and IA, the Spanish initials for artificial intelligence.

It’s a lab because we run experiments, measure and publish what comes out, including what fails. And it’s a community because nobody learns alone: what one person figures out saves everyone else part of the way.

Why ColIA

Lately, many communities have grown around AI, across all the fields it touches. But in Colombia there wasn’t a place to learn and grow in AI, either professionally or as a community.

That’s where ColIA comes from: an open, collaborative community that brings together people willing to build and learn in the open, to give back as a community, and to welcome anyone who wants to be part of this change.

ColIA is a place to show the talent and creativity of its members. We’re not after a profit, but a space to learn and grow together.

How we work

Everything published at ColIA follows six principles:

  1. Open. Code, models and recipes (settings for running models, measured on consumer hardware) are published under open licenses. When we start from another company’s model, we say so and publish under the most open license it allows.
  2. Measured. Every claim comes with numbers, measured on consumer hardware: from a laptop without a graphics card to a workstation with several.
  3. Bilingual. Everything ships in English and Spanish. Spanish is our language: we write it natively, not as a translation.
  4. Local. What we make runs on your computer, without depending on a cloud, and your data never leaves it.
  5. Community. Anyone who wants to learn, explore or contribute is welcome, whatever they know.
  6. Places. Our models are named after places in Colombia that deserve to be better known: not the big cities, but places that are sometimes forgotten and are also beautiful, diverse and full of talent.

What we’re starting with

We’re preparing two things:

  • A model: a small one that runs on your own computer and is named after a place in Colombia. It’s coming soon.
  • An app to use AI models on your own computer, with settings measured on consumer hardware. It’s in development.

We’ll introduce them here on the blog over the next few days. If you want to be the first to know, join our Discord.

Join us

You don’t need to know everything. ColIA starts with one person learning in the open, and one day it will be a community by everyone and for everyone. If you want to learn, find people to build with, or make small things that help, there’s room for you.

  • Chat with us on Discord: meet people, ask questions and organize projects. Or in GitHub Discussions: questions, ideas or whatever you’re building.
  • Contribute by following the guide. It’s not all code: asking questions, measuring on your computer or improving a text helps too.
  • Read the code of conduct: it’s short, and it helps us keep the community welcoming and productive.
  • Follow us on X, Instagram and LinkedIn.
  • Write to us at [email protected]. We read every message.

Want to join?

Ask a question, share an idea or tell us what you're building. You don't need to be an expert.

Chat with us on Discord or in GitHub Discussions