Forging The Future with Chris Howard · 2026-03-19 · 30 min
At CES 2026, we sat down with Chris Eliasmith, CTO of Applied Brain Research, to discuss how brain-inspired AI is enabling fast, low-power voice interfaces that run directly on edge devices. Drawing on research modeling the hippocampus, his team developed new neural network architectures that significantly improve efficiency and accuracy for tasks like speech recognition and text to speech. These advances allow devices such as AR glasses, robots, and wearables to respond to voice commands in under 300 milliseconds, creating interactions that feel natural and conversational. Eliasmith also explains the tradeoffs between model size, accuracy, and power consumption, and how running AI at the edge can reduce costs and reliance on the cloud. He ultimately envisions a future where complete AI agents run locally on small devices, making technology simpler and more accessible for everyday users.
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