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Google Is Partnering With Raspberry Pi To Create AI (zdnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the coming-soon dept.

Google is planning to bring artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to the diminutive Raspberry Pi this year. The Raspberry Pi Foundation said in a statement, "Google is going to arrive in style in 2017. The tech titan has exciting plans for the maker community." ZDNet reports: The advertising-to-cloud-computing giant intends to make a range of smart tools available this year, according to the Foundation. "Google's range of AI and machine learning technology could enable makers to build even more powerful projects," it said. Google has developed a huge range of tools for machine learning, IoT, wearables, robotics, and home automation, and it wants Raspberry Pi fans to fill out a survey that will help it to understand what tools to provide. The survey mentions face- and emotion-recognition and speech-to-text translation, as well as natural language processing and sentiment analysis. "The tech giant also provides powerful technology for navigation, bots, and predictive analytics. The survey will help them get a feel for the Raspberry Pi community, but it'll also help us get the kinds of services we need," said the Foundation.

57 comments

  1. AI with only 1.2 GHz!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How did they do it?!?!?

    1. Re:AI with only 1.2 GHz!!! by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Broadband. The device is like a camera, microphone, sensor or input. The data is then sent to a supercomputer for the AI magic and profit.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:AI with only 1.2 GHz!!! by allo · · Score: 1

      Your mind does less operations per second.

    3. Re: AI with only 1.2 GHz!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was possible to implement Chess AI on an Atari 2600 game console with only 8K ROM and a 1MHz 6502 microprocessor.

  2. No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No darn way am I letting Google observe every detail of what I do inside my home.

    1/ Their Google Analytics follows me from website to website.
    2/ With so many people & organisations using Gmail, they have a huge percentage of my emails.
    3/ Likewise with Android phones (friends, not me): Google sucking-up my contact details, photos including me, etc

    They creep me out and I'll do my best to retain what little privacy I have from them.

    1. Re:No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy shit! What kind of e-mails, websites, and pictures are you viewing??? When they decide to come for you, sounds like you're well and truly screwed.

    2. Re:No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When they decide to sell you, sounds like you're well and truly screwed.

      FTFY.

    3. Re:No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. Use NoScript and don't allow google-analytics.com domain
      2. Stop using Gmail
      3. Get rid of your smartphone, get a cheap dumbphone. Read a book if you're bored when you're on the can.
      3a. If you're really worried about being tracked everywhere, open up your new $50 dumbphone, identify the GPS antenna, and short it to ground. Now you can only be tracked to a cell tower. Keep your $50 dumbphone turned off or in Airplane Mode when you're not actively using it, and the ability to track you dwindles to essentially zero.

      Cowardly cucks claim there's no way to recover any of their privacy; I beg to differ, they're just not trying hard enough.

    4. Re: No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's no way. The problem with tech and social media is that it's now driving society. You can avoid Facebook but you're going to be labelled "a weirdo" by your peers. Eventually you'll be labelled "a potential terrorist" by your government.

      A person who has no digital footprint is suspicious and a risk in the digital age.

      So you can try, but you'll isolate yourself sufficiently that you'll become a non-member of society and Darwin will sort the rest out. Nice try though.

    5. Re:No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      (1) I do use NoScript.

      (2) I don't use Gmail. But maybe you do, and when we email each other Google effectively has a copy of my emails.

      (3) As above. I don't use Android, but others do. A lot of others.

      I'm not "really worried" about being tracked. I resent that a single company, Google, knows so much about me / us. And I'll make them work hard for every bit.

    6. Re:No way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm the original poster ...

      Truth be told, I have VERY mundane emails, websites, pictures.
      However I'm also a very private person, as are many people here on /.

      "They" will never come for me; I work, pay my taxes, and don't do anything subversive. (Unless you count being private as subversive.)

      But that's not the point !

  3. Phone Home? by iliketrash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course, the Google-powered Raspberry Pi devices will all phone home. Right?

    1. Re:Phone Home? by swillden · · Score: 1

      Of course, the Google-powered Raspberry Pi devices will all phone home. Right?

      Not necessarily, it depends on what you use. Many of the AI tools are inherently cloud-based, relying on Google's models for image recognition, etc. Those are too big and too complex to run outside of a data center. But you can also build your own TensorFlow models and use Google's cloud service to train them (a computationally-expensive process, which Google has custom hardware to accelerate), then download the trained model and execute it on the RPi (or a different machine), offline.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    2. Re:Phone Home? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Do you expect to run Google's AI software complete with data centers on your Pi?

      This is Google giving access to its APIs there's no phoning home in the sense that you are being monitored.

  4. It'll be AIaaS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It will be AI as a Service, and when the intern who spearheaded the effort gets bored, and runs off to join Apple's Siri team, a whole bunch of tinkerers out there are going to find their AI projects brain dead.

  5. AI? by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 2, Informative

    Is it a bit presumptuous to call it AI? Machine learning yeah OK but AI? Really.

  6. Sure by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

    Like the other dozens of projects and partnerships that have promised pretty much the same over the last 40+ years.

    1. Re:Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, the over exaggerator generation. Seeing as how only a few 1000 people in the entire world had a computer in their house 40+ years ago and fewer still has any sort of dialup connectivity and you weren't even a glint in yet to be born mother's eye at the time. You're pushing it a bit there buddy. Try maybe the last 5 years.

    2. Re:Sure by Jason1729 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're right about that over exaggeration except you're the one doing it. The Apple II came out 40 years ago this April. The Altair 8800 article that inspired Bill Gates was years old by that point. This is also the 40th anniversary of the TRS-80 and Commodore PET.

      It would be a smaller exaggeration than your nugget to say there were 1000 different *models* of home computer on the market 40 years ago.

    3. Re:Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop making us feel old!

    4. Re:Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      40 years ago is right on the cusp of the home computer explosion of the late 70s/early 80s. By the end of 1979, the TRS-80 (the largest selling home computer of the decade -- several times that of the Apple II) had sold over 100,000. But that was only 37 years ago, in Jan 1977 neither the TRS-80 nor the Apple II had been released. There were probably a few 10s of thousands in existence, it was still the preserve of a minority of enthusiasts, even though by 35 years ago it was to have grown to millions.

      PS: Shit! I started programming in BASIC on a TRS-80

  7. Support for how long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How long until the api's get pulled and your google pi goes all sour on you!!!

  8. Oblig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dave, it's me, I'm home. Unlock the door.

    1. Re:Oblig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dave's not here, man!

  9. Simple: Cloud by DrYak · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is google.
    Their AI offering don't have any installable component, not even on clusters.
    They only provide APIs.

    So the 1.2 GHz AArch64 running on your Pi3 will only take care to connect over HTTPS to some RESTful API.

    And Google is trying to attract developers to their API as fast as possible, to avoid being beaten to the hackers IoT market dominance by other competitors.
    (e.g.:
    Microsoft has announced they open API access to their Bing/Cortana offerings,
    Alexa from Amazon has even been featured on a few instructables.com on Raspberry Pis,
    Houndify is also entering the market with an API specially oriented to easilly add Voice-to-Meaning to 3rd party apps, etc.)

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Simple: Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least running on a rPI it'll be slower than a Missouri 3rd grader.

    2. Re:Simple: Cloud by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Took the survey, 1-am I a maker, 2-my age. Yup, that's all they are interested in? Hell of a survey.

      Hay H1B Zombies, I know that putting AI into a rPi is not on your test, so go home and figure it out yourself. Impress us from Bombay.

    3. Re: Simple: Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If that's true then why is this even a Pi thing? If the heavy lifting is in the cloud then my phone or my watch can do it. Heck, even my toaster could do it.

      Or is the problem that all developers are working on Pi hardware now? Where did all the devs go??

    4. Re:Simple: Cloud by swillden · · Score: 1

      This is google. Their AI offering don't have any installable component, not even on clusters.

      One of their offerings is TensorFlow training. When it's done you download the model and run it locally.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    5. Re: Simple: Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      small and cheap as well as very hackable. something that you can dedicate to things.

    6. Re:Simple: Cloud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They already have all of your information anyway, they're just using that information to confirm that it is you.

      You equip the "Tin Foil Hat".

  10. API-only by DrYak · · Score: 2

    In fact, google doesn't even provide any installable AI component.
    All their offerings are cloud API only.

    So by definition, it only exclusively works by phoning home.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  11. Voice-to-Meaning by DrYak · · Score: 1

    The "Voice-to-Meaning" capability of some AI clusters like Google's
    (or Amazon's Alexa, soundhound's Houndify, Apple's Siri)
    are quite impressive already.

    The ability to have a (more or less) natural conversation with the assistant, and cluster running somewhere in the cloud being able to decode what you want it to do.
    And such capabilites (thanks to a documented cloud API) can indeed be leveraged by any Raspberry Pi homebrew project, as long as an internet connection is available.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Voice-to-Meaning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Siri, Alexa ARE NOT AI. Just stop. They are just voice recognition programs hooked up the databases.

    2. Re:Voice-to-Meaning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to have missed the part where they recognize your voice and try to make sense of what you said, to look up the appropriate thing in the database.

    3. Re:Voice-to-Meaning by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      So are you, except your database is smaller.

  12. Better: NO cloud by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    This is google.
    Their AI offering don't have any installable component, not even on clusters.
    They only provide APIs.

    Keep your eye on the open efforts for TTS and STT. Those are where our best hopes lie.

    Not in fixing ourselves to the rear bumper of some corporation with a bloody chain made of links of extracted personal information.

    C'mon, people. If we're smart (I know, I know) we will wrest back control of our own destinies.

    (Oh, and BTW, Google, that survey was incredibly lame. Who wrote that? A fourth grader?)

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Better: NO cloud by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Why not place the AI into a 128G thumb drive? When 256G thumb drives drop in price, move to that size?

    2. Re:Better: NO cloud by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      AI requires computation, not storage.

    3. Re:Better: NO cloud by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      I guess it boils down for A.I. students to publish which type and their respective sizes of problems can be handled by the Raspberry Pi? And as speed and memory size increase, then folks could have their own A.I. ?

  13. "Feel" is right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The survey will help them get a feel for the Raspberry Pi community

    Considering that this is Google, they'll be getting a "feel" all the way up your ass.

  14. Nope by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Keep your $50 dumbphone turned off or in Airplane Mode when you're not actively using it, and the ability to track you dwindles to essentially zero.

    No. The only way to absolutely stop a tracking system from following you via your phone is to take the battery out. When it's "off", that doesn't mean it can't listen or use the radio. That "off" button is a softkey. Not a power switch. You think "I'm turning it off", it's going "hey, user pressed a button... now, what shall I do in response..."

    However, no electrons available is a complete show-stopper.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  15. Al by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    who is this Mr. Al we keep speaking of?

  16. TensorFlow Already Runs on a Pi Locally by NotWallaceStevens · · Score: 1

    TensorFlow Already Runs on a Pi Locally. There are plenty of projects out there working on this. I wonder what will be new here--better optimizations? I hope they address the use case of a Pi away from WiFi better.

  17. Open Speech-To-Text by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Keep your eye on the open efforts for TTS and STT.

    Speaking of which: I happen to have done a bit of online search about this subject (non-cloud STT).

    Two things :

    - Old style statistical based approach (N-grams and Hidden Markov Models) :
    CMU Sphinx is an open-source implementation.
    These older approaches are rather lighter on the processing power.
    If you limit requirement (e.g.: only recognize a 1000-word vocabulary) it is possible to run it on embed CPUs.
    There are people getting CMU Sphinx on Raspberry Pi3.
    There is Open Ears which is a STT framework using Sphinx that is 100% running on iPhone and iPad.

    - 2010s style AI (using Deep Neural Net, Recurrent Neural Nets like Long Short-Term Nets) - similar to what Google and co use on their networks :
    Kaldi and EESEN based on it.
    Of course these kind of approaches require way much more processing power than what available on most embed platforms.
    But as they are opensource, you could install it on your server rack in your basement, and have the Raspberry Pis stream OPUS-compressed audio over Wifi of what they need processed.

    Will it beat Google ?
    Nope, due to less processing power and specially much smaller amount of training material.

    Could it be used to add speach capabilities without needing to stream every single noise to Google and Bigbrother ?
    Certainly.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  18. Scale problems by DrYak · · Score: 1

    I guess it boils down for A.I. students to publish which type and their respective sizes of problems can be handled by the Raspberry Pi?

    Most of the time : Nope.

    It boils down to the fact that most complex A.I. problems are nowadays tackled using neural nets.
    Which require usually orders of magnitude more power that what's available on a mere embed CPUs.
    You usually want a couple of servers in your basement each equipped with graphics cards running the neural nets over some GPGPU solution (OpenCL, CUDA, etc.)

    And that's without taking into account the massive datasets needed to train said neural nets.
    e.g.: for Speach-to-Text
    For Google, with thousands of users all streaming their voice commands to the mothership, they have a huge corpus to refine their models.
    For us random geeks, we basically are limited to a few small open corpuses like voxforge.

    So there are very few AI thinks that you can directly accomplish on the RaspPi itself.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  19. Cheap by DrYak · · Score: 1

    If that's true then why is this even a Pi thing? If the heavy lifting is in the cloud then my phone or my watch can do it.

    The RaspPi are cheap.

    If you want to do tons of things (like use AI for voice commands in your home, image recognition on your security cams, etc...)
    you either :
    - buy an expensive phone or smartwatch for each.

    or:
    - buy a cheap RasbPi for each.

    As the number of project increase the order of magnitude in price between a Pi and a smartphone start to really get noticeable.

    Or is the problem that all developers are working on Pi hardware now? Where did all the devs go??

    So yeah, most of the "hack at home" style of developers currently experiment with RaspPis.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]