How bia works, in plain words
A normal computer starts up into a desktop full of programs. A computer running bia starts up into one long, friendly conversation — with you, your family, your customers, and the computer itself.
From a USB stick to a living helper
- 1
Write bia onto a USB stick
Download the small bia writer for Mac, Windows or Linux. Choose how bia should think — usually a cloud brain, or a brain on the stick for powerful computers — and write the stick.
- 2
Start a computer from the stick
Plug it into a PC or laptop and switch on. The screen shows bia instead of Windows or a desktop. Nothing on the computer’s own disk is touched unless you ask.
- 3
Say hello
Type on the screen, or open bia’s private app from your phone — bia shows you how to get a personal key for it.
- 4
Give it a life
Ask bia to join WhatsApp or Telegram, give it a name and a photo, introduce it to the people it will help.
- 5
Let it settle in
Move bia from the stick onto the computer’s own disk when you are ready, so the stick is free again. From then on it updates and repairs itself, and moves to a new computer when you get one.
One conversation for everything
Everything reaches bia the same way: as a message with a sender and a place. Your typing on the screen, a WhatsApp from a customer, a phone call, a reminder that is due, a job that just finished. That is why bia never mixes people up, and why it can juggle many things at once without losing track.
Which disks are in this computer?
Is there parking at the guesthouse?
A reminder is due: “Call the plumber”.
A background job finished: photos sorted.
Answers Maria on WhatsApp, tells you about the disks on the screen, reminds you about the plumber, and reports the photos are done.
What’s on the stick
A brain
A connection to an AI language model in the cloud — or, on a powerful computer, one that runs on the stick itself.
Its senses and voice
Messengers, calls, speech in about a hundred languages, and its own chat app.
Its hands
A complete, modern operating system it controls itself: programs, a web browser, the screen, files.
Its safe
A vault for passwords, two-factor codes and passkeys, kept on its own disk.
Its memory
A diary, reflections, an address book and a calendar that survive restarts and moves.
Its survival kit
Tools to back itself up, move to other computers, update and repair itself.
What you need
- A USB stick of 8 GB or more (bigger if you want the brain on the stick).
- A computer: almost any PC or laptop from the last ten or so years, or a small ARM mini-PC.
- For messengers: a Telegram account and/or a phone with WhatsApp to link to.
- For the cloud brain: an internet connection and an account with an AI provider. DeepSeek V4.1 is the cheapest good choice today.
- Optional, for the brain on the stick (no internet needed): a high-end graphics card, or unified memory, with at least 64 GB of video memory (VRAM).
What you don’t need
- No programming. You talk to bia in your own words.
- No monitor once it runs — use its private app from your phone.
- No subscription to bia itself. It is free software.
- No cloud account to keep your data. It stays on bia’s disk.
Wake up a potato
All you need is a USB stick and a computer you are not using. Twenty minutes later, it is someone.