Mycroft AI – An Open Source Voice Assistant

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Thanks to Elly for a couple of links related to voice assistants. On an unrelated topic, I was lamenting that as long as Windows 10 is as buggy (or buggier!) than 10 Roach Motels, the lure of Cortana was less & less. She provided a Wired article on voice assistants:

https://www.wired.com/story/voice-assistants-arent-so-easy-to-fire/, and a link to this: https://mycroft.ai/.

Mycroft is a Linux-based personal voice assistant that is customizable. The Mycroft Mark I is wide & flat with a robot-looking face & a British accent. It was funded on Kickstarter & retails at the website for $179.99. The Mycroft Mark II is currently on Kickstarter, fully funded & has 15 days left in the campaign. The Mark II is similar to Amazon Echo, Google Home, Harman Kardon INVOKE, & Apple HomePod.  What makes it different, IMO, is a small screen that can display basic information as well as voice it. For Mark II, besides other funding levels, $99 gets you a DIY version with everything but a housing, & $129 gets you a built, ready-to-use unit. Both estimated to deliver in December this year.

BTW; why the name ‘Mycroft’? After Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s older & smarter, but lazier brother. Makes sense to me; all voice assistants sit around, give you advice, & send your requests to others to actually get them done!

Bought a refurbished Windows 10 64-bit, currently updated to 22H2. Have broke the AC adapter cord going to the 8.1 machine, but before that, coaxed it into charging. Need to buy new adapter if wish to continue using it.
Wild Bill Rides Again...

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HiFlyer, Elly

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An update to the Mark II Kickstarter:

Stream a lot of music? Us too.

That’s why at $250k we’re adding another Media Skill. This stretch goal unlocks the feature for Mycroft users to connect Spotify and Sonos with their Mycroft device.

These skills were the #1 and #2 most requested in our survey; and we completely agree with you! Spotify will be available soon for Spotify premium accounts, and we will continue work with the third party integrations of Sonos to ensure this skill is available when Mark II ships.

Not there yet, but it’s doable. With 15 days left, they’re currently at $226,268; $23,732 to go. You can get to the Kickstarter from the Mycroft home page, but here’s the link to their KS page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aiforeveryone/mycroft-mark-ii-the-open-voice-assistant?ref=3uf9kf

Bought a refurbished Windows 10 64-bit, currently updated to 22H2. Have broke the AC adapter cord going to the 8.1 machine, but before that, coaxed it into charging. Need to buy new adapter if wish to continue using it.
Wild Bill Rides Again...

2 users thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer, Elly

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This may not or may not be plug and play like the other personal voice assistants, but it is open source software. That means you are not tied to a proprietary system like Microsoft, Google, or Apple.

If we are not using proprietary software, then we cannot be herded into using malware as an operating system, forced to subscribe or be left out, and have control and choices about our systems.

The proprietary systems want you to think that you have to have them… but we can choose… and given Microsoft’s aggressive and poorly performing behavior, and how far open source software has come, it might be time to seriously consider choosing a Linux distro, a Mycroft personal voice assistant, and supporting the developers by buying their open source products, or donating to their sites, when you use their free and open source software.

I’m for liberating us from proprietary… so thank you, Wild Bill, for putting this info out there. May it help us regain control over the Iot… our computers… our smart phones…

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

2 users thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer, WildBill

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