Amidst the ongoing AI craze, Raspberry Pi, the microcomputer company, is joining the trend by planning to introduce its own AI chip. This chip is seamlessly integrated with Raspberry Pi's camera software and allows for the execution of AI-based applications, such as chatbots, directly on the compact computer. To bring this AI capability to life, Raspberry Pi has collaborated with chipmaker Hailo. The outcome of this partnership is the AI Kit, an add-on for Raspberry Pi 5 microcomputers, which will harness the power of Hailo's Hailo-8L M. 2 accelerator. The kits will soon be available for purchase at approximately $70 from Raspberry Pi-approved resellers worldwide. In an interview with The Verge, Orr Danon, the CEO and co-founder of Hailo, highlighted that their accelerator boasts a power consumption of less than 2 watts and requires no active cooling.

With 13 tera operations per second (TOPS) on offer, this accelerator's performance falls short of what is planned for AI laptops, such as Intel's Lunar Lake processors, expected to reach 40 TOPS. Traditionally, most AI applications rely on cloud computing due to their energy and computing power demands. However, there is now a growing focus on developing smaller AI models and processors that require less power, enabling AI to be accessed on portable devices. This development empowers laptops and phones to run coding assistants or AI-powered photo editing applications without having to rely on API calls.