The future of AI is in our hands in the form of a palm-sized device known as the Rabbit R1. Opening up a brave new world where search, generative AI and more, will never be the same again.
It's been a week since my last confession, so it's time for another session (I love how that rhymed with "confession"), with the digital Priest of Hive.
However, in the run-up to that last post, I watched a keynote (more like a "Stevenote"), about a little device with the potential to set a new paradigm in the world of AI.
If you follow tech news as I do, I'm sure you've heard of the Rabbit R1 device. This palm-sized gadget almost looks like something out of The Jetsons, and has a retro, yet futuristic vibe about it. The speaker, doing his best to channel the late, great, Steve Jobs, clearly learned a thing or two about hardware design and giving a good presentation, because he nailed it in both areas.
When I first started watching the unveiling, I wondered (as many others did) "why can't this be an app on my phone?" But as I looked more into it, that question was answered in the form of the many permissions that would be needed and the restrictions imposed by being on someone elses device.
I could picture the concessions, and the rats nest of approvals needed if they went that route. So it became very obvious that in order to provide the seamless experience on offer, it had to be its own thing on a device of its own.
I was transfixed as I watched the speaker use plain natural language to effortlessly plan a trip. No need to use stilted and precise phrases such as the ones needed with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
You just tell it what you want it to do naturally.
I haven't felt this way about a potential game-changer since I first laid eyes on the Bitcoin whitepaper back in 2009/10.
the $199 price point made this almost an impulse purchase for early adopters like me. i got into crypto when everyone else in my area was warning me off it.
They didn't get it.
I did.
I could see the promise offered by crypto just as I can see the utility in the Rabbit R1. It runs on the Rabbit OS, with a push-to-talk button, and it even has a SIM card slot...
The 'LAM' (Large Action Model) that its based on, allows it to be optimized for (from the rabbit.tech website):
Search
Music
Rideshare
Food
Vision
Genarative A1
Translation
With more to come.
There's also an experimential 'web teach mode' where you'll be able to train Rabbit to learn new things. They've also mentioned an actions store, where you'll be able to download new actions directly to your device, in case you don't want to teach it yourself.
If it can do HALF the things shown in the keynote, it's a worthwhile purchase for someone like me. I've RAILED against people using ChatGPT to write entire posts FOR THEM on Hive. But I've also been careful to say that I'm fine with those who use it to ASSIST THEM in blogging (I just want them to write the actual post themselves, out of their own head), can you see the difference?
I've spent HOURS in research when putting together a post, and the Rabbit R1 will help to cut that time way down. Even more so when I just need that quick factoid in order to illustrate a point, as opposed to scrolling through page after page on Google.
"This Will Be Copied!" (Just Like one of the Pod People...)
For instance I could ask it: "Is Meesterboom one of the Pod People?"
Then we'll have our answer (he just "looks" human). :)
If you're in one of the first 100,000 orders, your Rabbit R1 will come with a free year of Perplexity Pro (a $200 value. Trust me, you want this.), which you can start using RIGHT NOW.
This add-on essentially cancels out the cost of the R1, while making for a more powerful unit overall.
Now of course you know...
As MKBHD once said about the Dynamic Island feature on the iPhone 14 Pro: "This Will Be Copied!."
You know damn well that executives at Apple, Amazon and Google, were watching this presentation as well. So I fully expect Apple in particular, to offer a luxe, and more refined AI personal assistant of their own.
But it ain't here yet folks.
I was very impressed with what I saw, and can't wait to get my hands on the Rabbit R1. What do you think of this hardware-based, AI personal assistant?