According to The Rundown AI, Taalas unveiled the HC1, a hardware chip that embeds an AI model directly into silicon, delivering response latencies under 100 milliseconds with the current Llama 3.1 8B model, and the company claims it can retool the chip for new models within months. As reported by The Rundown AI, while Llama 3.1 8B quality is described as limited today, the HC1’s on‑chip inference suggests opportunities for ultra‑low‑latency edge deployments, cost‑efficient offline inference, and energy savings for voice assistants, on‑device copilots, and industrial control. According to The Rundown AI, the rapid retooling timeline could enable faster adoption of state‑of‑the‑art models in consumer devices and enterprise appliances, potentially compressing upgrade cycles and creating vendor lock‑in opportunities for vertical solutions.