Video: Get Started With Google AIY

The Google AIY Voice Kit is an exciting new kit that allows you to turn your Raspberry PI 3 into a fully functioning (and hackable) Google Assistant device in under an hour. Google’s new “AIY Projects” initiative is dedicated to making Artificial Intelligence accessible and easy for anyone interested in learning more about it. As a play on words from the classic Do-It-Yourself acronym, “AIY” simply stands for Artificial-Intelligence-Yourself –and they aren’t kidding. Read more to learn how to assemble the the Google AIY Voice Kit and for more exciting details on the AIY movement.

What is Google’s Voice Kit?
Google’s AIY Projects has set out on a mission to enable artificial intelligence prototyping from your desk at home.  The Voice Kit was originally made to teach users how to enable Google Assistant using a Raspberry Pi 3, but it has grown into being one of the hottest items on the market for anyone who loves the Raspberry Pi or knows how to follow instructions and use a keyboard and mouse!  With an extremely well outlined tutorial and “How-To” content, AIY Projects have happily handed over their keys to the Google Cloud Speech API even if you have never touched a Raspberry Pi. They make it so easy that you can have the whole thing built and running their demos in under an hour.

People have already started building their own amazing creation with the Voice Kit and Google’s Cloud Speech API.  Some have made their own Google-Assistant-enabled intercom or their own voice-controlled Smart-Appliance interface.   The online tutorial presented by AIY Project, which can be found at aiyprojects.withgoogle.com/voice, shows users how to develop their own scripts and demos to use the Google Cloud Speech API to do all sort of neat things that are all highly customizable.  What this also means is that you can program your own  Voice Kit and use your voice to control nearly everything around you, if you’re willing to get creative with how you do it.

The kit comes ready to build and has a lot of great instructions on how to do so, but to get the kit running you will need a few extra things.

1. AIY Kit – The second most important piece to running Google Assistant on your Raspberry Pi 3!
2. Raspberry Pi 3 – The puppet-brain of Google.  The Raspberry Pi 3 is near and dear to all of us, especially now that Google is teaching us how to use it in new and cool ways.  The Raspberry Pi 3 is essential to the Voice Kit, as it is what runs all of the actual computing.
3. SD Card – To get the Raspberry Pi up and running properly, you will need an SD card that is large enough to hold the Voice Kit SD image.  The Voice Kit SD image contains the default Raspbian Linux platform which allows you to run the Raspberry Pi 3 as a desktop upon startup. Note: writing the Voice Kit SD image to your SD card should be done using another computer.
4. Power Supply for Pi – Electricity is essential, don’t forget your power supply.
5. Keyboard for Pi – To run any demo from boot, and to configure the use of the Google Cloud Speech API, you need to have a keyboard.  After you have a demo running, you don’t need the keyboard anymore.
6. Mouse for Pi – Same story as what was said for the keyboard.

You can put this entire kit together in about an hour. It requires no soldering, a small screw driver, and a small amount of time dedication. The AIY Project Voice Kit is the best thing to come to the Raspberry Pi community since raspberries themselves, simply because it is intended for literally anyone!