A brand new gadget has drawn the attention – if not delighted – of the technological press soaked in AI. Described as a “pocket companion”, Rabbit Tech R1 was unveiled on Wednesday at CES.
The R1 is powered by a large action model and allows you to transport an AI assistant to your pocket – a bit like any smartphone. The gadget quickly became the subject of many debate and online derision, and during this time, sold its first batch of 10,000 units within 24 hours.
When we started to build R1, we said internally that we would be happy if we sold 500 aircraft on the launch day. In 24 hours, we have already beaten this by 20x!
While the heart of the R1 is its intelligence AI, the gadget is the material: a strange but minimalist design with a small screen, an analog scrolling wheel and a rotation camera.
A deeper look at the R1
The R1 specifications are not particularly impressive.
“Inside the case, it has a 2.3 GHz Mediatek Helio P35 processor, 4 GB of memory and 128 GB of storage, a USB-C port and an empty SIM card slot,” said the Company in an official press release. For the context, the Helio P35 was launched in 2018 And mid -range phones supplied like the Samsung Galaxy A12 and the Huawei Honor 8A.
The software, however, is a strong differentiator. LAM is a complex AI system that goes beyond traditional language treatment models, depending on the company. It is designed to understand and perform actions based on human instructions and interactions with web applications and interfaces.
Image: Rabbit.Tech
Rabbit Tech says that LAM combines neural network methodologies with symbolic algorithms. This hybrid approach allows AI not only to learn data as a traditional neural network, but also to follow the rules and predefined logic, as a symbolic system.
The result is a more robust and versatile model capable of understanding the complex structures and the actions of users, and facilitates interaction with other sites without having to tokenize or create an extensive code for a whole service.
The formation of LAM implies the learning of observation and imitation. The company says that it learns by observing human users interacting with interfaces and applications, by capturing the nuances of how the actions are carried out. For a basic user, this means that with enough time, instead of relying on API calls, it could understand that when a button is driven, an order is taken and a user could configure actions Even if there is no API key available or if the site is redesigned.
Traditional language models are confronted with limitations when treating user interfaces, often requiring a transformation of the interface into text or images. Rabbit says that his LAM bypassing these constraints by interacting directly with the interface, leading to a faster and more precise task execution.
To achieve this, team R1 created a cloud environment which he appointed “The Rabbit Hole”. This platform hosts commonly used web application components, allowing LAM to interact with them safely and effectively. Rabbit Hole promises that user data and interactions are protected and do not have access to sensitive information.
Large action model? AI device? Meh.
The arrival of the R1 was not welcomed by delighted applause. Critics said the portfolio presentation By Jesse Lyu, founder and CEO of Rabbit Tech, was not very strong, and many people did not understand the goal of the aircraft, nor what he is able to do.
Even the curious shared concerns concerning potential defects and things that the rabbit has not responded, costs to future proof of the concept.
AI and youtuber consultant Olivio Sarikas Created a video explaining why the device can be easily replaced by a smartphone (which was the main point among criticism). He praised the collaboration with teenage engineering, but did not show the same sympathy for the R1 as many in the community.
“I am obviously not opposed to AI and LLM,” he said Decrypt, “My criticism is that this device seems to be oversized for its goal.”
Sarikas later published a tweet highlighting the potential challenges that Rabbit Tech is faced by trying to reach significant market penetration, in particular considering the vast base of users of consumer applications.
I suppose that for this device is that it will not have enough users to be supported by my applications in general. Let’s say that a wonder occurs and that they manage to sell 250K of this thing. Door Dash has 32 million active users. It’s 0.78%. They would need to integrate this device and … pic.twitter.com/8m1a5nhjbb
Another concern is the cost of the service, separated from the device. Lee Higgins, founder of the technological agency We are first mobilementioned that the sale of the device at $ 199 without subscription costs while promising unlimited access to an AI which requires substantial calculation power seems economically difficult.
The pricing strategy – which has proven to be difficult even for the Amazon technology giant with its Alexa model – led questions about the sustainability of the Rabbit Tech business model, taking into account the high costs associated with the management of ‘IA advanced like LAM.
199 and no subscription. I find it extremely difficult to believe that it is viable with the cost of calculation for the decent LLM. Please explain how possible? Are you going to burn money to get things done?
The most common complaint, however, was that the R1 is not necessary. Sarikas expressed skepticism as to the need for Rabbit Tech R1 aircraft compared to existing technologies.
“I do not see any specific reason why this device is necessary because it does not seem to have additional technology that a smartphone would not have either,” he said Decipher. He explained on this subject by contrasting the R1 with the Apple Watch and the GoPro, which do things similar to a smartphone but offer features adapted to situations where a phone is not ideal.
“I really don’t see why the R1 needs its own equipment,” he said.
Many quickly pointed out that a large technological company could almost effortlessly reproduce the functionality of the R1, even if its implementation of AI was as new and innovative as the company says.
The R1 is not the first gadget centered on the AI ​​to emerge in the middle of the IA media threshing cycle. Human AI pineAt a price of $ 699 with a monthly subscription of $ 24, is another participant in this area. Unlike the R1, the human pin goes further at the concept – it is a portable device that projects information about your hand with a green laser.
Propelled by a more modern Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, it uses a camera, depth and motion sensors to interact with the environment. The pin is designed as an autonomous device, operating on Cosmos OS and incorporating the AI ​​models of Microsoft and Openai. It offers vocal interaction, translation services, a photograph supplied by AI and even a personalized DJ Ai from Tidal Music Streaming.
The R1 could carve out a niche in the world of technology, but it always has a long road before winning a place in the hearts of many skeptics. As Sarikas said Decipher“If I have the choice between Chatgpt (and) GPT Store with thousands of applications and this thing, why would I choose the rabbit 1?”
Generally intelligent Bulletin
A weekly IA journey told by Gen, an AI generator model.
