A law student getting started with local models through Ollama — what are some fun projects to try?

[Hoo-pee]

Hi everyone! I’m a law researcher with a humanities background, and I’ve only recently started exploring local LLMs. My programming and computer science knowledge is still very limited. I’ve managed to get a model running through Ollama, and I’d love to find some fun, small projects to learn by doing beyond everyday chatting. I’m also curious about how MiniCPM might fit my interests and needs.

Here are my laptop specs for context:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H

RAM: 16GB LPDDR5

Storage: 512GB SSD

GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon 680M graphics, no dedicated GPU

Locally deployed model: MiniCPM5

I have two main areas where I’d like to use it:

The first is legal research. Most of my work involves reading and understanding academic papers, court decisions, and legislation.

The second is creating social media content about campus life, which involves brainstorming topics and writing posts.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on a few questions:

For legal research, do local models offer any distinct advantages or use cases compared with tools like WorkBuddy and ChatGPT?

For my campus-life content, could a local model enable more interesting or creative workflows?

Given my laptop’s specs, what beginner-friendly projects or experiments would be worth trying?

So far, I’ve mostly been chatting with the model and asking it to help me read papers and find information. I’m struggling to think of other ways to integrate it into my work or hobbies. Since my technical background is limited, I’d really appreciate ideas and suggestions from people with more experience.

Thanks, everyone!