A Raspberry Pi 2 Mannequin B single-board laptop.
Olly Curtis | Future Publishing | Future | Getty Photographs
The corporate behind the Raspberry Pi line of computer systems has raised contemporary funding from Sony’s semiconductor unit, in a deal geared toward advancing its efforts in synthetic intelligence.
Sony Semiconductor Options, a subsidiary of Sony Company, invested an undisclosed quantity in Raspberry Pi Ltd, the buying and selling firm of Raspberry Pi, the corporate stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
The extent of the funding was not revealed, however Eben Upton, Raspberry Pi’s co-founder and CEO, stated that the agency raised the money on the similar $500 million valuation it was value in a 2021 funding spherical, when it introduced in $45 million.
Upton established Raspberry Pi in 2012 with the purpose of creating computing extra accessible to younger folks. Raspberry Pi’s tiny single-board computer systems are the scale of a bank card and have been used to construct all the things from high-altitude balloons to small radio-controlled submarines.
Raspberry Pi’s clients have been primarily hobbyists and lecturers within the early days. The corporate has since change into a extra lively participant within the enterprise — in a typical 12 months, roughly 70% of its gross sales now come from industrial clients embedding its merchandise into factories or shopper gadgets, Upton informed CNBC.
The deal extends an present manufacturing relationship between Sony and Raspberry Pi. A brand new partnership, solid alongside the funding, will see Raspberry Pi customers and builders acquire entry to Sony’s AITRIOS platform, permitting them to develop visible sensing purposes utilizing AI cameras outfitted with its IMX500 imaging sensors.
Upton stated this is able to assist children perceive computer systems as they exist at the moment, relatively than machines from a number of many years in the past.
“It is tremendous vital we train children about computer systems as they’re now, relatively than [how they were] 30 years in the past,” Upton informed CNBC. “Whereas Raspberry Pi seems to be again, on the training, we hark again to the glory years of Eighties, we have got to be aware we’re not attempting to make sooner variations of Eighties computer systems.”
Individuals have already been experimenting with Raspberry Pi merchandise for machine studying purposes, Upton stated, including that the Sony partnership will enable them to do extra in that discipline.
It comes at a time of super hype for the AI trade. ChatGPT, the favored AI chatbot from OpenAI, has change into a viral phenomenon, because of its capacity to generate new content material corresponding to essays and poems from easy person prompts. Since its launch in November final 12 months, ChatGPT has amassed over 100 million month-to-month customers, in keeping with UBS.
On the similar time, the capabilities of ChatGPT has led to some worries within the tech neighborhood that AI could also be changing into too highly effective and will displace many roles.
In an open letter final month, Elon Musk and several other different tech leaders referred to as for a six-month moratorium on creating AI extra superior than GPT-4 — the most recent massive language mannequin from OpenAI — citing dangers to society. Italy has gone so far as to ban the service, blaming fears round privateness.
Upton stated that, though GPT-4 and different massive language fashions corresponding to Google’s Bard are spectacular, he thinks concern that they may result in AI able to basic intelligence on par with people is overblown.
“You possibly can naively say GPT-3 was good, and GPT-4 seems to be loads higher, so GPT-8 goes to be basic AI, self-aware. That’s most likely not an extrapolation you need to make,” Upton stated.
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