Raspberry Pi’s $130 AI HAT+ 2 Turns Your Mini‑Computer Into a Local AI Engine
Raspberry Pi’s new AI HAT+ 2 adds 8 GB of RAM and a Hailo 10H accelerator to the Pi 5, enabling local execution of generative AI models like Llama 3.2.
A tiny powerhouse arrives
Raspberry Pi just dropped a new add‑on board that could change how hobbyists and developers experiment with artificial intelligence. The AI HAT+ 2, priced at $130, plugs straight into the Raspberry Pi 5 and brings a hefty 8 GB of RAM plus a dedicated Hailo 10H chip capable of 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second). In plain English, it lets a credit‑card‑sized computer run modern generative AI models without needing a cloud subscription.
What the new AI HAT+ 2 brings
The original AI HAT, released last year, was built mainly for image‑recognition tasks. Its successor upgrades every key spec:
- On‑board memory – 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM gives the module its own workspace, freeing the Pi’s main CPU.
- Hailo 10H accelerator – This custom AI chip delivers 40 TOPS, enough to crunch the math behind language and vision models.
- Support for small generative models – Developers can now load Llama 3.2, DeepSeek‑V2 and similar lightweight models directly on the Pi.
- Plug‑and‑play design – A simple connector attaches the HAT to the Pi 5, and the software stack is pre‑configured for popular frameworks like PyTorch and TensorFlow Lite.
Running AI locally on a Pi
When the HAT is attached, the Pi 5 delegates all AI‑heavy work to the Hailo chip. The main Arm CPU stays free for other duties—handling I/O, running a web server, or managing sensors. This split‑task approach means you can build a robot that sees, talks, and reacts in real time without lag from a distant cloud service.
Why this matters for makers and developers
- Privacy and offline capability – Sensitive data never leaves the device, a crucial advantage for home automation, medical prototypes, or education labs.
- Cost savings – At $130 the AI HAT+ 2 is far cheaper than a dedicated edge‑AI box or a high‑end GPU, opening AI experimentation to schools and hobbyists.
- Speed and responsiveness – Local inference cuts latency from seconds (cloud round‑trip) to milliseconds, unlocking real‑time voice assistants, interactive art installations, and on‑the‑fly translation.
- Learning platform – Students can now explore both hardware acceleration and modern language models on a single, affordable platform.
Looking ahead
Raspberry Pi’s ecosystem thrives on community‑driven projects, and this new board is likely to spark a wave of creative applications. From smart mirrors that understand spoken commands to DIY drones that navigate by “thinking” on the edge, the AI HAT+ 2 bridges the gap between powerful AI research and the maker‑bench.
The company also hinted at future firmware updates that could push even larger models onto the board, suggesting this is just the first step toward truly portable AI. For anyone who’s ever wanted to tinker with ChatGPT‑style tech without a pricey laptop, the AI HAT+ 2 makes that dream suddenly reachable.
Read the full story at The Verge.