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Snips AIR: an open source, private, blockchain-based alternative to Amazon Echo

13 points by mfester 8y ago

mfester 8y ago
Hi! I am co-founder of Snips (https://www.snips.ai https://www.snips.ai), and happy to share a big announcement with you: in the end of 2019, we will start shipping Snips AIR (https://air.snips.ai https://air.snips.ai), the first open source, private by design voice assistant running on the blockchain! If you want to learn more, we are hosting a livestream Q&A session tomorrow Wednesday, May 30th at 6pm CET, with my co-founder, Rand Hindi. Let us know you'll be there by filling this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8n6ER5OrSBH_w5kwpeByK70yxTrWKRpMNPcx-C__TeAqasQ/viewform https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8n6ER5OrSBH_w5kwp..., and we will send the link to the livestream prior to the event.
- pilingual 8y ago
  Wait what? I upvoted your previous announcement a few days ago but I didn’t dig in. Why is this blockchain based? This sounds incongruous.
  - bluehatbrit 8y ago
    I came to ask the same thing, I don't understand what part of the core offering (voice assistant) requires the block chain. I can see how you might be able to shoehorn it in there, but it doesn't seem very practical or useful for customers. There's also very little about its use on the website.
    - mfester 8y ago
      Hi bluehatbrit. We will publish our whitepaper in a few weeks, which will thoroughly detail the usecases for our blockchain, and how it fits in our roadmap of building 100% private voice assistants.
  - acoye 8y ago
    Chain of trust for software update/delivery from what I understand. Nothing good ol' RSA signing could not solve if that is the case.
SheinhardtWigCo 8y ago
This is just another token scam.
- rhindi 8y ago
  I can guarantee it is not! We are a VC backed, 60 people AI team from Europe, having worked on AI for a few years. This is a new product we are launching next year
StavrosK 8y ago
I've always wanted a trustless, decentralized, proof-of-work-based alternative to proprietary devices like Alexa and Google Home. Oh, wait, I didn't. What I've wanted is some nice open hardware with a good ML model for recognizing speech. I don't know what a blockchain is doing here.
- api 8y ago
  How to determine if you need a block chain: (1) Are you building a fully decentralized global ledger for use by multiple parties that do not share a common basis of trust? If YES: Congratulations! You might need a block chain. If NO: You do not need a block chain. There are no more questions. :)
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    Exactly, and when there's a use case for a blockchain that isn't "building a trustless currency", I'd love to know, because everything else I've heard would be better suited by a database on a server.
    - api 8y ago
      Decentralized DNS and distributed CAs are possibilities, but those are quite close to a distributed trustless currency in that they apportion a finite resource or assign trust.
  - rhindi 8y ago
    It started as we wanted to avoid using credit cards and thus having to identify users (the whole point of this new product is 100% privacy). The token will be user to run a TCR-like appstore on the consumer side, and to incentivize people to participate in federated learning developer side.
    - StavrosK 8y ago
      Why make your own token? Why not use an already-existing currency like Nano or something? (It's a rhetorical question, I know the answer is "because we want to sell our tokens for a shitload of money")
acoye 8y ago
"[…] Download features from the OpenSkillStore, based on the blockchain" I wonder, does it work with a contract on a public blockchain like ethereum or does it run on Snips's own blockchain? If so is there a white / yellow paper we can dig into?
- rhindi 8y ago
  Hey! We are publishing the whitepaper in a few weeks. We use a blockchain in a number of places, both on the consumer side for the skills marketplace, and on the developer side for federated learning.
rhindi 8y ago
Hi everyone! I am a co-founder at Snips. This is a new product we are working on, which is due for next year You can read more about it here https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-air-a-private-by-design-open-source-decentralized-voice-assistant-a31e27fb799b https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-air-a-private-by-design-op... We will be publishing our whitepaper in the coming weeks, and are welcoming any feedback! Cheers

13 points by mfester 8y ago

Hi! I am co-founder of Snips (https://www.snips.ai https://www.snips.ai), and happy to share a big announcement with you: in the end of 2019, we will start shipping Snips AIR (https://air.snips.ai https://air.snips.ai), the first open source, private by design voice assistant running on the blockchain! If you want to learn more, we are hosting a livestream Q&A session tomorrow Wednesday, May 30th at 6pm CET, with my co-founder, Rand Hindi. Let us know you'll be there by filling this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8n6ER5OrSBH_w5kwpeByK70yxTrWKRpMNPcx-C__TeAqasQ/viewform https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8n6ER5OrSBH_w5kwp..., and we will send the link to the livestream prior to the event.

pilingual 8y ago
Wait what? I upvoted your previous announcement a few days ago but I didn’t dig in. Why is this blockchain based? This sounds incongruous.
- bluehatbrit 8y ago
  I came to ask the same thing, I don't understand what part of the core offering (voice assistant) requires the block chain. I can see how you might be able to shoehorn it in there, but it doesn't seem very practical or useful for customers. There's also very little about its use on the website.
  - mfester 8y ago
    Hi bluehatbrit. We will publish our whitepaper in a few weeks, which will thoroughly detail the usecases for our blockchain, and how it fits in our roadmap of building 100% private voice assistants.
- acoye 8y ago
  Chain of trust for software update/delivery from what I understand. Nothing good ol' RSA signing could not solve if that is the case.

SheinhardtWigCo 8y ago

This is just another token scam.

rhindi 8y ago
I can guarantee it is not! We are a VC backed, 60 people AI team from Europe, having worked on AI for a few years. This is a new product we are launching next year

StavrosK 8y ago

I've always wanted a trustless, decentralized, proof-of-work-based alternative to proprietary devices like Alexa and Google Home. Oh, wait, I didn't. What I've wanted is some nice open hardware with a good ML model for recognizing speech. I don't know what a blockchain is doing here.

api 8y ago
How to determine if you need a block chain: (1) Are you building a fully decentralized global ledger for use by multiple parties that do not share a common basis of trust? If YES: Congratulations! You might need a block chain. If NO: You do not need a block chain. There are no more questions. :)
- StavrosK 8y ago
  Exactly, and when there's a use case for a blockchain that isn't "building a trustless currency", I'd love to know, because everything else I've heard would be better suited by a database on a server.
  - api 8y ago
    Decentralized DNS and distributed CAs are possibilities, but those are quite close to a distributed trustless currency in that they apportion a finite resource or assign trust.
- rhindi 8y ago
  It started as we wanted to avoid using credit cards and thus having to identify users (the whole point of this new product is 100% privacy). The token will be user to run a TCR-like appstore on the consumer side, and to incentivize people to participate in federated learning developer side.
  - StavrosK 8y ago
    Why make your own token? Why not use an already-existing currency like Nano or something? (It's a rhetorical question, I know the answer is "because we want to sell our tokens for a shitload of money")

acoye 8y ago

"[…] Download features from the OpenSkillStore, based on the blockchain" I wonder, does it work with a contract on a public blockchain like ethereum or does it run on Snips's own blockchain? If so is there a white / yellow paper we can dig into?

rhindi 8y ago
Hey! We are publishing the whitepaper in a few weeks. We use a blockchain in a number of places, both on the consumer side for the skills marketplace, and on the developer side for federated learning.

rhindi 8y ago

Hi everyone! I am a co-founder at Snips. This is a new product we are working on, which is due for next year You can read more about it here https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-air-a-private-by-design-open-source-decentralized-voice-assistant-a31e27fb799b https://medium.com/snips-ai/snips-air-a-private-by-design-op... We will be publishing our whitepaper in the coming weeks, and are welcoming any feedback! Cheers