This Viral AI Pocket Assistant Is Redefining the Future of Smartphone Functionality
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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 was surely an AI-packed event, with a main focus on the hardware integrations of the next-generation technology. Amid the range of new products, a US-based startup announced Rabbit R1, which is being labeled as a new “pocket companion.” The Santa Monica-based business stated that the device runs on a custom natural language operating system and aims to bring an app-free smartphone experience.
Don’t think of the Rabbit R1 simply as a new smart assistant in a box. It’s not your average Siri, or it’s constrained like ChatGPT. In this article, we’ll take a deep look at what exactly Rabbit R1 does, how it works, and if it can replace our smartphones.
What is Rabbit R1?
Revealed at CES 2024, Rabbit R1 is a $199 device with a 2.88-inch touchscreen. The AI pocket assistant has been co-designed with Teenage Engineering and resembles a walkie-talkie with a luminous orange color, adding to its retro feel. The device features a camera, control wheel, microphones, and speakers. That’s not all of it; it comes with 4GB memory and 128GB storage and runs on a 2.3 GHz MediaTek processor.
You can think of the R1 as a pocket-sized AI assistant that is made to take over all those repetitive digital tasks that we’re tired of. Unlike phones that are focused on apps, the R1 doesn’t display apps or connect to app APIs. Instead, it makes use of AI to perform tasks.
In simple language, rather than going through multiple apps on your phone, you can simply tell R1 what you need, and it will perform the task for you. The device can manage various tasks, such as ordering a car, getting groceries, controlling music, and much more through a single interface.
The pocket assistance runs on Rabbit OS and uses a combination of large language models to understand your intent and action models created by Rabbit. These AI-powered technologies will carry out your requests, remember how you perform a task in an app, and replicate the task when asked.
What’s The Purpose of Rabbit R1?
You might be wondering what the purpose of the R1 is, as our smartphones are already smart enough and bring the power of AI to our fingertips. While phones have evolved into our personal entertainment devices in recent years, R1 works as a standalone hardware portal. It’s designed in a way to help users ignore all distractions and handle their everyday tasks in a smarter and more efficient manner.
How Does Rabbit R1 Work?
So, how exactly does it work? To begin interacting with R1, you simply need to press and hold the “Push-to-Talk” button. The Rabbit OS will listen and display a rabbit head. You can ask the R1 AI to book yourself an Uber, identify an artist, or book an Uber.
Jesse Lyu, Rabbit’s founder, states that the company has trained its large action model through human interaction with apps. The model has been carefully trained by humans with the help of apps like Spotify and Uber to learn how they work. It knows how to confirm an order, where to search menus, and much more.
How Much Does Rabbit R1 Cost?
Pre-orders for the device have already started on Rabbit’s official website for $199 USD, with no additional requirement for a monthly subscription. The U.S. orders will be shipped in late March, and global orders will start to ship later in the year. The company has already sold 10,000 units on the first day of pre-orders.
Can Rabbit R1 Replace Your Smartphone?
The Rabbit R1 and Smartphones are similar as they come with touchscreens and cameras and can do lots of things, such as play music and take pictures. The R1 even has a MediaTek processor, memory, storage, and all the stuff you’ll find in smartphones, too. However, the Rabbit R1 is not going to replace our smartphones for now. Right now, it’s an add-on accessory to your daily life, and the use of smartphones makes it impossible in today’s time to remove it from our lives and replace it with pocket-sized AI assistance. In the future, devices like R1 will surely change how we use smart devices.
