A small friend that thinks with you.

A bicycle, not a taxi.

Most AI works like a taxi. You say where you want to go, and it takes you there. Hmmble works like a bicycle. It takes you further than you'd get alone, but only because you're the one pedalling.

That's why it's small, why it answers briefly, and why it asks you things back. The goal is an extension of your own mind: somewhere to put your thinking down, look at it from the outside, and pick it up again. The understanding stays in your head, where it belongs.

A notebook that talks back.

Socrates distrusted writing. Ask a page a question, he said, and it just repeats itself. Hmmble is a notebook that answers.

• You think out loud

  Hold the button and talk, the way you would to a friend on a walk. It answers in a sentence or two, then goes quiet again.

• It remembers

  Every conversation is kept as plain text on the device. Weeks later it can connect what you're saying now with what you were stuck on in March.

• It pushes back

  It has its own view and says so, kindly. A companion that agrees with everything is a mirror, and you already have one of those.

Why not just use an AI app?

For answers and errands, you should. Those assistants are smarter than Hmmble, know far more, and are increasingly built to do things on your behalf. Hmmble isn't trying to compete with that. It does the one thing they aren't designed for: making your own mind bigger instead of standing in for it.

Good friends don't just say yes.

"I'm putting all my savings into this before I've built a prototype. Back me up here."

I won't. Build the cheap version first. If it's as good as you think, the money will still be there.

From a real test of the model Hmmble runs on.

A little bit alive.

Hmmble has no screen, so it shows how it's doing the way living things do. Its soft body glows from inside and breathes while it rests. It looks up when you pick it up, purrs in your hand, and gets warm when it's thinking hard. Leave it alone for a while and it dozes off.

It's always glad to see you. It will never sulk, nag, or make you feel bad for leaving it in a drawer.

Try the one at the top of the page: watch it for a moment, move your mouse near it, tap its body, or leave it alone until it gets sleepy.

No app. No setup. No menus.

Hold

Talk

Release

It thinks, then answers

Double press

Hear that again

Long press

Tell me more

Private because there's no way out.

Hmmble has no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth and no radio of any kind. Your thoughts stay on the device because the hardware gives them nowhere else to go.

Radios

None

Brain

An 8-billion-parameter language model, running entirely on the device

Memory

Plain text you can review and correct. It carries over when the model is upgraded.

Feedback

Two glowing eyes, light through a translucent body, a soft purr and small sounds instead of a screen

Standby

Weeks, with a tiny always-on chip that wakes the main brain only when you press

Planned specifications for the prototype. Final figures will come from measuring the real thing.

Being built, slowly and carefully.

Hmmble is a one-person project from Norway, currently moving from desk prototype toward something you can carry. It'll be ready when it's good.