Raspberry Pi's $130 Add-On Lets You Run AI Models at Home

The tiny computer that sparked a maker revolution is getting a brain boost that puts AI experimentation within reach of everyday tinkerers.

Raspberry Pi launched the AI HAT+ 2 this week, a snap-on board that transforms the popular Raspberry Pi 5 into a capable AI workstation. At $130, it brings generative AI capabilities to your desk without needing expensive cloud services or powerful gaming computers.

The board packs 8GB of dedicated RAM and a Hailo 10H chip delivering 40 TOPS of AI performance. That's enough muscle to run small but capable AI models like Llama 3.2 and DeepSeek-R1-Distill right on your kitchen table.

The practical applications are already impressive. Early demos show the device describing live camera feeds in real-time and translating text between languages. You can even train and fine-tune your own AI models without sending data to distant servers.

This matters for privacy-conscious users and small businesses that want to keep their data local. Running AI on your own hardware means your information never leaves your workspace.

The add-on handles AI tasks while leaving the main Raspberry Pi board free for other work. It's like giving your tiny computer a specialized assistant that only handles the heavy thinking.

The Ripple Effect

Making AI accessible to hobbyists and educators has already started sparking creativity. The Raspberry Pi community, known for building everything from weather stations to robots, now has powerful AI tools at hobbyist prices.

Students can experiment with machine learning without expensive equipment. Small businesses can prototype AI solutions before investing in enterprise systems. Makers can build smarter devices that understand and respond to their environment.

Tech reviewer Jeff Geerling found that a standalone Raspberry Pi 5 with more RAM sometimes performs faster for certain tasks. But the AI HAT+ 2 shines for users who need dedicated AI processing while running other applications simultaneously.

Raspberry Pi promises more and larger AI models will become available soon after launch. As the software ecosystem grows, the possibilities multiply for what creators can build.

The technology that once required million-dollar data centers now fits in a board smaller than a deck of cards, opening doors for the next generation of AI innovators.