- Innovative new AI robot is hand-cranked
- It uses a Raspberry Pi and local AI models.
- The robot is designed to operate offline and without an additional power source.
Using AI bots typically means relying on access to the cloud and data centers, and handing over your information (and your chats) to one of the big tech companies. However, a new DIY device called CrankGPT works very differently.
Built by the enterprising folks at Squeez Labs, the CrankGPT box (via Boing Boing) is powered by a crank. It runs on a Raspberry Pi with 8GB of RAM and uses small local AI models from Meta and Google to transcribe speech and execute queries.
As the demo video shows, if you find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world without electricity or internet connectivity, you can still gather data on hummingbirds and translate between languages using the power of your arm muscles.
“As long as the electronics are kept dry and at a reasonable temperature, there’s no reason this wouldn’t still work in a hundred years, although you’ll definitely need a new SD card,” the inventors explain in their summary of how CrankGPT was made.
Various plans available
The creators of this smart box have even created a tongue-in-cheek landing page offering the CrankGPT for sale. If your AI needs are more demanding, you can upgrade to a system based on a stationary bike or a full gym of people pedaling.
However, there’s a more serious point here too: Squeeze Labs is working to make AI smaller, cheaper, and faster so it can run on more devices without needing cloud connectivity. This is better for user privacy and the environment.
AI companies are investing huge amounts in expanding data centers in a bid to keep up with the growing computing needs of coders and other users, and that means increased demands on electricity supply and water usage.
As Apple recently demonstrated with Siri AI, more advanced and complex AI prompts need to run on online servers. As models become more efficient over time and devices become more powerful, that should start to change.
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