Mycroft is an open-source alternative to Alexa with a new smart speaker

[MUSIC] So you're familiar with Amazon's assistant. You're familiar with the Google assistant by now, but have you heard about Mycroft? Mycroft is an open source assistant that runs on well Raspberry Pi and [INAUDIBLE]. It's been around for a couple of years now. First unit shipped in 2017, this is the second unit, it's the Mycroft AI Mark II. It's a smart speaker with a built in touch screen. It's got WiFi and Bluetooth, and it's totally private, it's not gonna store any of your data, that the big calling card. Part of my on. Does it keep your recordings safe in a cloud somewhere, even anonymized. It deletes everything it hears as soon as it hears it, and doesn't store anything else about you or about how you use it. I like the first device, they My Croft Mark One, the Mark Two's gonna work With the open source home assistant smart home platform and that's going to help it connect with devices like Philips hue light bulbs WeMo switches things like that. So the basics of the smart home in terms of controlling lights and switches automating your thermostat hydraskin still do that. You can still set timers and can still answer trivia questions. It can still show you the weather, do a lot of the basic things that you are probably going to do with other more popular systems. so if you wanted something that is a little more private, this is something you might want to consider, if that's a concern. Now the Mycroft [UNKNOWN] speaker here is a IndyGoGo marketplace gadget. Which means you can go an put some money down and reserve one that they will send in a couple of months when it is done. And as always CNet is not endorsing the product. We haven't tested it. We don't Know anything about the actual way it's gonna work when it's finished, it's not finished yet. That' said the focus on privacy means that Microft might be in an assistant worth keeping an eye on.