Jolla Partners with Venho.Ai on the Mind2, a "Privacy-First AI Computer" Accessory for Your Phone

Finish mobile firm Jolla, best known for its Sailfish operating system, is hitching its wagon to the artificial intelligence (AI) train — opening pre-orders for the Jolla Mind2, described by the company as a "privacy-first AI computer" powered by Venho.Ai.

"Jolla Mind2 is a privacy-first AI computer that empowers you to reclaim control of your digital life," the company claims of its latest launch, which is something of a departure from its usual fare. "Mind2 seamlessly integrates with your phone or computer, serving as your personal AI assistant, knowledge base and communication hub, all while keeping your data safe and secure."

While the Jolla Mind2 isn't something you can use on its own, relying as it does on a connection to a host computer or smartphone, the company is hoping it can offer something sadly lacking from cloud-powered AI assistant system: privacy. Powered by Venho.Ai, a fellow Finnish startup working on privacy-centric artificial intelligence technology, the Mind2 serves as a host for locally-running large language models (LLMs) and a vector database — meaning personal data is never transmitted to third parties.

"Jolla Mind2 is like having a personal assistant who is always there to help, making life more convenient and less stressful" claims Antti Saarnio, Jolla chair, of the company's device. "AI assistants can have tremendous positive impact on our lives, but the users must be in control."

The Jolla Mind2 will, the company promises, provide an "AI embedded interface" that will act as "a central repository for your digital information" including emails, messages, and documents, which can be queried by voice. Data is protected by a decentralized identification system, the company claims, and will come with "specialized agents" for messaging, calendar control, contact handling, document management, report writing, "and more," with support for third parties to develop their own agents for the device.

Inside the box is a single-board computer based on the Rockchip RK3588 system-on-chip, giving it four high-performance Arm Cortex-A76 cores running at up to 2.4GHz and four lower-power Cortex-A55 cores running at up to 1.8GHz, an Arm Mali G610-MP4 graphics processor — though, with no video outputs of its own, this will likely go under-utilized — and a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) delivering a claimed six tera-operations per second (TOPS) at the lowest INT4 precision.

There's 16GB of RAM, a 128GB eMMC with M.2 NVMe and microSD card expansion, gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 radios, and USB Type-A and USB Type-C ports for unspecified accessories.

Jolla has opened pre-orders for the Mind2 as a "Community Edition" targeting developers, priced at €489 (around $530) for the first 500 buyers — a 30 per cent discount over the planned €699 (around $760) retail price — with shipping expected to begin in September this year. The price includes a 1TB SSD and a six-month Venho.Ai subscription — which will need to be renewed at €9.99 (around $11) a month when it expires.

Its launch, however, comes as companies begin to integrate local AI acceleration into devices directly — including Google's latest smartphones and laptops built around Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite system-on-chip.

More information is available on the Jolla Mind2 website.