Survival LLM brings offline AI assistance to emergency situations - Big Tech and the digital economy

Survival LLM is a free, open-source assistant that runs entirely on a computer without an internet connection. It uses a downloaded reference library to answer questions about first aid, food preservation, water purification and survival.

Survival LLM is designed to provide practical information when internet access is unavailable, including during power outages or other emergency situations. The free, open-source assistant runs locally on a computer and does not send queries externally.

The project’s version 0.3.4 was released on October 27, 2026, and attracted attention from users on Hacker News. Its creator describes it as an AI system built for emergencies, with answers generated from a reference library downloaded in advance.

That library includes around 930,000 of Wikipedia’s most viewed articles, medical resources such as WikiMed and MedlinePlus, emergency guides from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, military survival manuals, wikiHow tutorials and iFixit repair guides.

Survival LLM displays the sources used for each answer. Users can open those references and see the specific passages highlighted. The system also allows people to add their own documents, such as a generator manual or a family emergency plan, which can then be consulted alongside the built-in material.

The application adjusts its AI model to the computer on which it is installed. During the first launch, it checks the available memory and downloads a compatible model. A Mac with at least 128 GB of memory may receive NVIDIA’s Nemotron 3.5 Super, an 80 GB model, while computers with 16 to 31 GB use IBM’s Granite 4.2 8B, which requires 6 GB.

The reference library can also be reduced. The complete version requires a 9 GB download, while a version without Wikipedia and iFixit content takes 1.3 GB.

The developers caution that the assistant can make mistakes. In a test involving 22 questions about safety and first aid, the most powerful models answered correctly in 21 cases. The model intended for computers with 16 to 31 GB of memory answered 14 correctly.

The software also consumes significant power while generating answers. On a MacBook Pro, each response takes between five and 40 seconds and uses around 100 watts, a consideration when electricity is limited.

Sources: Numerama.