As AI models increasingly become commoditized, startups are racing to build the software layer that sits on top of them. One interesting entrant into this space is Osaurus , an open source, Apple-only LLM server that lets users move between different local AI models, either locally or in the cloud, while keeping their files and tools all on their own hardware. Osaurus evolved out of the idea for a desktop AI companion , Dinoki, which Osaurus co-founder Terence Pae described as a sort of “AI-powered Clippy.” Dinoki’s customers had asked him why they should buy the app if they still had to pay for tokens — the usage units AI companies charge for processing prompts and generating responses. That got Pae thinking more deeply about running AI locally. “That’s how Osaurus started,” Pae, previously a software engineer at Tesla and Netflix, told TechCrunch over a call. The idea, he explained, was to try to run an AI assistant locally.…