Google releases 'DIY AI' kit for Raspberry Pi users
Google has partnered with the Raspberry Pi Foundation's magazine, The MagPi, for a hardware kit giveaway which allows subscribers in the UK and US to add voice interaction to their Raspberry Pi creations. The kit includes a Voice Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) accessory board, a stereo microphone Voice HAT board, a large arcade button, wires and a cardboard case. As well as answering questions, the kit allows the addition of natural language voice commands.
Encouraging Raspberry Pi tinkerers to adopt Google's 'Artificial Intelligence Yourself' tech would be a big win for the search giant. Image: Raspberry Pi Foundation

If you've ever wanted to talk to your Raspberry Pi, a kit from Google which is being given away with the Raspberry Pi Foundation's magazine could make it a lot easier.

The pack allows you to turn a Raspberry Pi 3 into a voice-powered digital assistant using the Google Assistant SDK and Google's Cloud Speech API -- and thus add voice interaction to your projects.

The first 'Artificial Intelligence Yourself' projects kits are bundled with the print edition of the foundation's magazine, The MagPi 57. The pack includes a Google Voice Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) accessory board, a stereo microphone Voice HAT board, a large arcade button, wires, and cardboard case to house everything.

Voice-powered assistants like Google Home (and Amazon's Echo) are among the hottest technology trends, and tech companies are trying to get their own particular technologies adopted as widely as possible. Encouraging Raspberry Pi tinkerers to adopt Google's technology would be a big win considering that over ten million of the devices have been sold already, and they are being used as the computing power behind a number of gadgets.

Copies of the magazine are available in UK stores today, as well as via subscription. Copies have also been shipped to North America, and are available at Barnes & Noble and other stores.

Earlier this year the Raspberry Pi Foundation hinted that Google was planning something for the Raspberry Pi, saying that the search and advertising giant's AI and machine learning technology could enable makers to build even more powerful projects.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation also said that this week it has shipped 250,000 Pi Zero W devices, and added 13 new distributors for the tiny Wi-Fi device "so you should find it much easier to get hold of a unit".

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