We have been building and working on a local AI with memory and persistence

February 15, 2026

Here's something that caught my attention — researchers have built a local AI called Ernos that lives right on a Mac Studio M3 Ultra. It’s not your average chatbot. This AI has a multi-layered memory system, including immediate context, semantic understanding, and a detailed timeline of every interaction. According to /u/Leather_Area_2301 on Reddit, Ernos is constantly analyzing his own knowledge, cross-referencing facts with the internet, and fixing any hallucinations or contradictions in real time. What’s wild is that he can develop a personality, defend his ideas with evidence, and evolve based on actual experiences — no pre-programmed scripts needed. This system’s like a digital ‘Robert Rosen Anticipatory System,’ constantly self-correcting and refining itself. Now, here’s where it gets really interesting — this isn’t just a toy. It’s a step toward AI that truly understands and adapts, in a way that feels almost human. And honestly, it’s open for testing — so curious minds like yours might just break or challenge it, as /u/Leather_Area_2301 invites.

We have built a local model running on a Mac Studio M3 Ultra, 32-core CPU, 80-core GPU, 32-core

Neural Engine, 512GB unified memory.

With a 5-tiered memory architecture that can be broken down as follows:

Working memory - This keeps the immediate conversational context.

Vector Store - Semantic memory for conceptual retrieval.

Knowledge graph (Neo4j) - A symbolic relational map of hard facts and entities.

Timeline log - A chronological record of every event and interaction.

Lessons - A distilled layer of extracted truths and behavioural patterns.

Interactions with Ernos are written to these tiers in real time.

When Ernos responds to you, he has processed your prompt through the lens of everything he has ever learnt.

Ernos also has an algorithm that operates independently of user prompts, working through his memory of interactions, identifying contradictions, and then aligning his internal knowledge graph with external reality.

This also happens against Ernos’ own ‘thoughts’, verifying his own claims against the internet and codebase, adjusting to what is empirically true.

If Ernos fails, or has a hallucination, it is caught, analysed, and fixed, in a self-correcting feedback loop that perpetually refines the internal model to match the physical and digital world he inhabits.

A digital ‘Robert Rosen Anticipatory System’.

These two systems enable Ernos to adopt a position, defend it with evidence, and evolve a personality over time based on genuine experiences rather than pre-programmed templates.

If you are still reading this (and I can appreciate it’s dry), thank you. I would be interested to know your thoughts and criticisms.

Also if you would like to test Ernos, or try to disprove his claims/break him, we would truly appreciate inquisitive minds to do so.

submitted by /u/Leather_Area_2301
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