The tinyML Foundation Undergoes an Evolution: Meet the EDGE AI FOUNDATION

Non-profit industry group the tinyML Foundation is celebrating its growth and success with a rebrand, focusing on the broadening of what it means to run on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML and AI): say hello to the all-caps EDGE AI FOUNDATION.

"Since our founding in 2018 I have been honored to see the growth of this unique ecosystem, its impact and the technology advancements from tinyML to the edge of AI," says EDGE AI FOUNDATION chair Evgeni Gousev of the organization's first few years. "Our partners and supporters provide the fuel to engage our worldwide community and now, with the expanded scope as the EDGE AI FOUNDATION, I look forward to the journey ahead to connect AI to the real world."

"With over 100,000 people taking tinyML classes around the globe, tens of thousands involved in regional efforts, and over 100 technology companies sponsoring us — not to mention over 500k views on YouTube — we keep empowering more and more people through the latest in R&D, innovation, collaboration, and community," says Pete Bernard, formerly of Microsoft, who joined the tinyML Foundation as-was back in April. "To embrace this rapid evolution and the enormous potential for edge AI in real world applications, we decided to change our name to better reflect the expanding scope of our community."

The move is more than a rebranding exercise, though: it highlights the broadening of the edge machine learning and artificial intelligence markets themselves — where the gulf between the compact tinyML models capable of running on resource-constrained microcontrollers never designed with such workloads in mind and the big models running on high-power cloud servers in remote data centers has narrowed, in no small part thanks to an explosion of high-efficiency low-power devices with integrated accelerators for on-device ML and AI at the edge.

"Our mission is to democratize edge AI technology, making it accessible and impactful for all while fostering sustainability and responsible practices," says Bernard of the Foundation's goals. "The EDGE AI FOUNDATION is a place of limitless opportunity and the hotbed of activity, facilitating the sharing of knowledge, the dissemination of reference materials, the setting of industry best practices, and the nurturing of talent ensuring the advancements in edge AI technology solutions benefit all of society and the environment we share."

In addition to the new name, the EDGE AI FOUNDATION has announced a partnership with embedUR to launch labs targeting researchers from academia and industry, which aims to "level the playing field" for access to data sets, models, and code, with a particular though not exclusive focus on small neural networks dedicated to specific tasks.

The Foundation has also announced the "EDGE AIP," a partnership between industry and academia which includes certification programs and educational materials. Finally, the expanded group now boasts four new partner companies: Alif Semiconductor, Ceva, Particle, and Wind River.

More information is available on the Edge AI Foundation website, and in Bernard's LinkedIn announcement.