Smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s Siri have become household staples. Millions of people use them for music, reminders, controlling lights, and more. Their presence symbolizes how voice-driven AI is now part of everyday life.
But these conveniences come with a cost. Most mainstream assistants depend on cloud processing, meaning every query is recorded and stored in servers run by Big Tech. Concerns over surveillance, data misuse, and constant listening have made many people uneasy.
Luckily, there's always an alternative, and with this article, we will be taking a look at Ubo Pod, an offering by Ubo, which promises a hackable, modular AI assistant designed to prioritize privacy and user control.
Ubo Pod: What is It?
Ubo Pod is a compact, hackable AI assistant combining open source hardware and software. It is designed for hobbyists, developers, and privacy-conscious users. The project is led by Mehrdad Majzoobi with contributions from a team of open source developers keeping things rolling.
The device runs on Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 and supports local AI models like VOSK for speech recognition and Piper for text-to-speech. Optional cloud model offerings like Claude, OpenAI, and Gemini are also available.
As for the device itself, it measures 5.1 x 3.9 x 2 inches and weighs approximately 0.75 lb (340 g). It has been designed for easy assembly, upgrades, and repairs.
The front panel has a 1.54-inch TFT IPS display and a seven-button soft-touch keypad. A physical camera curtain and microphone disconnect switch provide privacy controls. Dual microphones and stereo speakers support voice interaction and audio output.
The insides and rear ports of the Ubo Pod.
The Ubo Pod's software architecture is modular and event-driven, utilizing a centralized state management system. It offers a graphical user interface accessible via a physical keypad or web browser and supports the installation of third-party Dockerized applications.
Developers can build applications using a low-code approach, leveraging a language-agnostic gRPC API for remote interactions.
Here's a demo video from its creators:
Want to Get/Build Yours?
The Ubo Pod is now live on Kickstarter. You can keep an eye on the Updates tab to stay informed. At the same time, you can explore the open source software repository and hardware repository for building, customizing, or replicating a Ubo Pod.
Ubo kind of reminds me of Mycroft, an amazing project that was shut down due to patent trolls.
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Abhishek Prakash
