Syntiant Corp., the recognized leader in low power edge AI deployment, unveiled its proprietary small language model assistant (SLMA), a highly accurate, cloud-free, on-device AI voice assistant that offers a seamless, natural voice interface for human-machine interactions.

Ideal for set-top box manufacturers, service providers and other device manufacturers, Syntiant’s SLMA brings the power of a large language model (LLM) to the edge, while eliminating the need to significantly upgrade or replace existing hardware.

“With our technology, AI language models that typically demand extensive computing resources can now operate efficiently on local devices,” said Kurt Busch, CEO of Syntiant. “While voice applications for our SLMA extend across many industries, imagine the advantage for set-top box manufacturers. Instead of providing static guides or instructions, manufacturers can now integrate a more dynamic, conversational AI assistant to help users without a Web connection, reducing one of the main customer friction points for service providers.”

Syntiant’s SLMA is currently being used to power voice interfaces in home appliances, networking equipment, video conferencing systems, among other devices. Coupled with Syntiant’s automatic speech recognition (ASR) models, Syntiant’s SLMA provides a natural voice-interface at a fraction of the computational cost of LLMs.

“The integration of Syntiant’s SLMA on our Synaptics Astra SL1680 high-performance, low-power system on chip offers a transformative opportunity, allowing users to control their environments, communicate, and perform tasks with unprecedented ease,” said Siddarth Chandrasekar, senior director of product marketing at Synaptics. “As a leader in scalable edge AI processing and connectivity for the IoT, this technology and its associated reference design align perfectly with our mission to help developers quickly deliver intuitive and responsive user experiences.”

With only 23 million parameters, Syntiant’s SLMA is highly scalable and can easily run on most existing set top box CPUs. The small language model’s always-on capability ensures continuous interactions anytime, without the limitations of human agents, such as work hours or fatigue.

Syntiant showcased its SLMA solution on a set-top box reference design in collaboration with Synaptics and Arcadyan Technology at IBC 2024 this past weekend.