There have been many attempts at open source AI-powered voice assistants (see Rhasspy, Mycroft and Jasper, to name a few) -- all established with the goal of creating privacy-preserving, offline experiences that don't compromise on functionality. Tech like Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa have years, if not decades, of R&D behind them -- and enormous infrastructure to boot. This month, LAION announced a new initiative, BUD-E, that seeks to build a "fully open" voice assistant capable of running on consumer hardware.