Current AI x Bhashini's first collaborative build

Most AI systems today are built behind closed doors and trained on Western languages. The new frontier is embodied AI: glasses, robots, pencils, speakers… Products that are entering our homes and bodies need to be open, personal, and multilingual. Built with India's government-backed Bhashini and unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit on February 20th 2026, Current AI x Bhashini's first collaborative build is a direct answer to that challenge.

Called the “Suno Sutra”, which means “listening chronicles” in Hindi, the prototype suggests a more mindful, respectful way of listening.

The handheld device can describe its surroundings via text or audio across the 22 official languages of India. It is entirely self-contained, runs AI models locally, and requires no internet connection.

It features a camera, screen, microphone, and speaker, running three AI models simultaneously: a vision model, Bhashini's automatic speech recognition and machine translation model, and a text-to-speech model. Together, they offer a powerful foundation for builders looking to create their own AI devices.

To enable others to examine, modify, and build on it, the device uses open-source software and hardware, and its full development instructions and code have already been released publicly. We want to give a shout-out to the open-source community that has been a huge source of inspiration for this build, particularly Marco Gerber’s Hear the world project. Access the full documentation about the prototype .

From device to platform:

This launch is not about a device, but about a platform to invent. Take the design files, modify them, improve them, build your startup on them: from a Private Handheld voice recorder to a safe smart home toy, to an offline crop analyser or a tourism navigator.

A different vision for AI

Our vision is to build a collaborative, collective, and global vision for AI, not one controlled by any single country or company. We will do so by partnering with mission-aligned organisations and creators to stitch together the full stack of public interest AI, from hardware to applications, and catalysing a movement for resilient public interest AI.

Endorsements

"We jointly launched Current AI for sustainable and sovereign access, and this year we announced another hard work tool for translation into Indian languages and dialects because AI that doesn’t understand dialect isn’t AI for all and this is why we do endorse this initiative for diversity in language." – Emmanuel Macron, President of France

"I appreciate the efforts toward developing inclusive, multilingual, and locally deployable AI solutions aligned with the vision of "AI for All."" – Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, India

What’s next

Current AI x Bhashini are launching an Innovation Challenge, inviting communities to imagine what this device could become and explore how open, embodied AI can enable many different futures—futures shaped by local needs, cultural contexts, and individual imagination—with complete privacy and control.

About Bhashini

BHASHINI, a department of the Government of India, aims to bridge digital, literacy, and language divides by creating innovative, voice-first multilingual solutions that enable seamless communication and access to digital services in multiple Indian languages. Through AI-driven, voice-first multilingual solutions, it empowers citizens across India, particularly in rural and underserved areas, to engage with technology and participate in the
digital economy without language barriers.