Independent AI leaves you in control. If someone else can override it, or profit at your expense, it is not really independent.
Let's talk about AI that leaves you in control. AI that doesn't use your information to feed big Silicon Valley companies or drive decisions you don't want made. That's independent AI.
What independent AI gives you is control. Nothing is absolute, but to a much higher degree, your data is yours, and your privacy is yours.
The test is simple. If someone else can override it, or profit at your expense, it's not really independent.
This comes in two forms. One: you run your own model, on your own machine. Your data never leaves your house, and your compute is yours. Two: you use a model with a hard rule. Do not retain, do not train. Your words, your files, your actions are not stored, and they never become someone else's training data.
Independent AI is AI run for your benefit.