A new type of general public gadget divides opinions, with industry observers wondering if simple devices and without a screen powered by AI could possibly replace the smartphone.
Start of the Silicon Valley Human was one of the first to get out of the block with the concept. He unveiled the AI spindle, essentially a square device with a battery that attaches to a user’s clothes in May 2023.
The human co-founder Imran Chaudhri said that the mini pin makes a future where technology “disappears” possible by becoming “without screen and invisible”.
The underlying objective is that a user becomes more present in his environment, solving a growing problem by which people are far from his environment due to the hyperconnected nature of current intelligent devices.
To restore balance in the way people interact with technology, the design engineer said the world needed “something radically different”.
The $ 699 device (plus $ 24 for the Internet to make it work) works as an autonomous product capable of making calls, translating, responding to requests, capturing photos and videos without display and does not require a second device to operate.
Tall vision
Although the premise seems visionary, a series of negative criticisms pointing to technical problems and basic functionality, as well as the response times of IA slow, gave Humane a verification of reality.
A few months after the launch of the PINBloomberg said the company explored A potential sale of his business.
In March, another start-up, Rabbit, introduced an analog apparatus which, like the AI pin, implemented a-native.
Named the R1, the pocket gadget is built on a similar idea of taking a step back from the use of applications on smartphones and allowing an AI assistant to get things done, such as flight booking, food control and the answer to real world questions via camera and voice commands.
Today, the Rabbithole OS based on the R1 cloud is limited to the management of certain applications: Uber; Doordash; Spotify; Apple Music; And Yelp, with more integration of work services.
But with the manufacturers of smartphones which also push the hard ecosystem of the AI available, is there really a market for a separate AI gadget?
AI by design
Rabbit CEO, Jesse Lyu, said Live mobile world (Mwl)) “The consumer electronics market is built around an obsolete applications ecosystem which limits the speed of possible innovation with AI”.
“Voice assistants today are not better, I have been waiting for almost 15 years to make Siri useful. The addition of AI features to a smartphone only scrapes the surface of what we can possibly do with AI, “said Lyu.
Unlike an AI vocal assistant which is integrated into the operating system of a smartphone, R1 of Rabbit works on a model formed on hundreds of popular applications, allowing the integrated agent to navigate in various interfaces.
The R1 also contains several models, including GPT-4, Claude, Perplexity Pro and Wolfram Alpha, allowing it to respond to a wide range of requests.
Lyu thinks that human exchange can be more personal, the AI assistant learning the consumer, the more they interact, aligning with the vision of the Human co-founder Choudhri to make AI “the engine behind the next jump in the design of the device”.
While PIN AI offers calls and SMS, R1 undresses basic communication functions and can only connect to the Internet. Lyu explained that “R1 is intended to complete your digital experience in an accessible and affordable way, and not to replace your smartphone”.
“It will cost more than $ 1,000 to access Apple Intelligence When it will finally come out because you will have to buy the iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max. Our model, and our intention, is very different. We want to give access to the best AI models to general consumers at an affordable price. »»
The CEO continued: “Smartphones have become personal entertainment devices where people spend hours a day watching videos, using social media and killing time. There is certainly a place on the market for this kind of experience, but that is not why Rabbit is there. We focus on building a useful AI agent who acts as your personal assistant. »»
Pocket AI
The purpose of the R1, at a price of $ 199, is to provide users with another way to engage with a personalized and advanced AI assistant. Lyu maintains that this will make interaction more accessible to a wider audience given the operating system powered by AI, such as Galaxy Ai or the next Apple Intelligenceare currently limited to larger devices. In particular, Samsung recently announced its intention to make its AI system available available to more smartphones models.
Like Pin AI, there are also question points on R1. Problems have been raised on incorrect translations, poor battery and general practice.
Rabbit said Mwl The experience of her first generation device is “not yet perfect” and that she worked to respond to comments and introduce new features.
The main analyst and director of the Americas of CCS Insight Leo Gebbie said that the idea of reducing dependence on smartphones was at the heart of the premise of AI gadgets so far, but the lack of support for critical applications “has paralyzed this aspiration”.
“Until the AI devices have reliable software integrations, which means that users can really get things done without being lacking on their smartphone, it is almost impossible to see how this dynamic would change,” he explained.
Gebbie also noted the need for a second device to configure or access the user’s interaction history on Ai-Native gadgets already has a “clear barrier” to replace or improve AI on devices.
“This toxic mixture of overpromisition and sub-discounting has undoubtedly removed the category of AI devices as a whole, but I always expect to see many more devices that try to capitalize on the current wave of enthusiasm for AI in industry.”
“The developers will always focus on the platforms that offer the most scale, and it is not surprising to see the sparse support of applications on emerging devices such as AI and R1 spindle,” said Gebbie.
Lyu predicts that consumers will gravitate less applications in the future, because it expects natural language to open up new ways of interacting with technology.
Paolo Pescatore, founder of PP Foresight, said that innovations like R1 and PIN “are new devices that represent a springboard towards the way we interact and we will engage in the future”.
“However, it is too early for these innovative products. Some users will consider it intrusive, which will force them to learn a new way of using a device to which they are not used to, “continued Pescatore, adding that” the smartphone is always a versatile versatile technological device which will be difficult to replace “.
For the future, Pescatore is optimistic for the equipment ecosystem “evolves quickly, and future devices will be fed by AI because it transcends end -to -end in the network and on the device”.