Pocket AI Gadget R1 sells, despite social media snark

A new gadget has attracted the attention—if not the cult—of the AI-infused tech press. Described as a “pocket companion,” the R1 from Rabbit Tech debuted at CES on Wednesday.

The R1 is powered by a large action model and lets you carry an AI assistant in your pocket – just like any other smartphone. The gadget quickly became the subject of much debate and ridicule online and meanwhile sold out the first 10,000 units within 24 hours.

While the heart of the R1 is its AI smarts, the gimmick is the hardware: an odd but minimal design with a small screen, an analog scroll wheel and a rotating camera.

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A closer look at the R1

The R1's specs aren't particularly impressive.

“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,” the company said in an official press release. For context, the Helio P35 was launched in 2018 and powered mid-range phones like the Samsung Galaxy A12 and Huawei Honor 8A.

But the software is a strong difference. LAM is a complex AI system that goes beyond traditional language processing models, according to the company. It is designed to understand and execute actions based on human instructions and interactions with web applications and interfaces.

Rabbit Tech says LAM combines neural network methods with symbolic algorithms. This hybrid approach allows AI to not only learn from data like a traditional neural network, but also follow predefined rules and logic like a symbolic system.

This results in a more robust and versatile model that can understand complex structures and user actions, and makes it easier to interface with other sites without having to develop extensive code for the full service.

LAM training includes observation and simulation learning. The company says it learns by watching human users interact with interfaces and applications, capturing the nuances of how actions are performed. For a basic user, this means that instead of relying on API calls with enough time, a command will be executed when a button is pressed, and the user can understand that there is no API button or configure the action. Site has been redesigned.

Traditional language models face limitations when dealing with user interfaces, often requiring the conversion of the interface to text or images. Rabbit bypasses these limitations by connecting its LAM directly to the interface, leading to faster and more accurate task execution.

To achieve this, the R1 team created a cloud environment they called the “Rabbit Hole”. This platform enables LAM to communicate securely and efficiently. Rabbit Hole promises that users' data and interactions are protected and do not contain any sensitive information.

A great action model? An AI tool? Meh

The arrival of the R1 was not met with applause. Critics said Rabbit Tech founder and CEO Jesse Liu's keynote speech wasn't very strong, and many people didn't understand the point of the device or what it could do.

Even the curious will share their concerns about potential flaws and things the rabbit hasn't nailed down, from cost to future-proofing the concept.

AI consultant and YouTuber Olivio Sarikas created a video explaining why the device could easily be replaced by a smartphone (which was a sticking point among critics). He appreciated the collaboration with Tinge Engineering, but didn't show the same sympathy for the R1 as those in the community.

“I'm clearly not against AI and LLMs,” he told Decrypt, “my criticism is that this tool seems over-engineered for its purpose.”

Sarikas later tweeted.

Another concern is the cost of the service apart from the device. Lee Higgins, founder of tech agency WearMobile First, said selling for $199 with no subscription fees seemed like an economic challenge when it promised unlimited access to AI, which requires massive amounts of computing power.

The pricing strategy has proved challenging even for tech giant Amazon with its Alexa model – the high costs associated with running advanced AI systems like LAM have led to questions about the sustainability of Rabbit Tech's business model.

The most common complaint is that R1 is unnecessary. Sarikas expressed skepticism comparing the Rabbit Tech R1 device to existing technologies.

“I don't see a particular reason why this device is needed because it doesn't seem to have any additional technology that doesn't have a smartphone in it,” he told Decrypt. He explained this by comparing the R1 to the Apple Watch and GoPro, which do the same things as a smartphone, but with functions tailored to a situation where the phone isn't ideal.

“I fail to see why the R1 needs its own hardware,” he argued.

Many were quick to point out that a major tech company could effortlessly replicate the R1's functionality, even if the AI ​​implementation was as new and innovative as the company claimed.

The R1 isn't the first AI-centric gadget to come out amid the AI ​​hype cycle. Human AI Pin, priced at $699 with a $24 monthly subscription, is another participant in this platform. Unlike the R1, the Human Pin takes the concept one step further – it's a wearable device that uses green laser data on your wrist.

Powered by a more modern Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, it uses a camera, depth and motion sensors to interact with its surroundings. Pin is designed to be a standalone device running on Cosmos OS and integrating AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI. It offers voice-based interaction, translation services, AI-powered photography and even a personalized AI DJ from Tidal music streaming.

The R1 may have carved out a niche for itself in the tech world, but it still has a long way to go before it finds a place in the hearts of many skeptics. As Sarikas told Decrypt, “If I had a choice between ChatGPT (and) GPT storage with thousands of ‘apps' and this thing, why would I choose Rabbit 1?”