Forward-looking: Rabbit is now accepting pre-orders for R1, a standalone AI-powered device that utilizes what the company calls a large action model (LAM) to learn how to perform and complete tasks on behalf of its user. In short, the LAM aims to understand how humans interact with computers.
By learning and mimicking these behaviors, it can interface with an app in a natural way just as a human would, without any coding integration. According to Rabbit founder Jesse Lyu, LAM can learn the interface of any software regardless of which platform it is running on.
The Rabbit R1, meanwhile, was designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering. It’s described as a pocket companion designed to perceive your surroundings, and includes a touchscreen interface, a push-to-talk button, an analogue scroll wheel, a microphone and speaker, and a computer vision-enabled 360-degree camera called the Rabbit Eye. The gadget additionally features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi links as well as cellular connectivity.
Rabbit R1 sounds a lot like a traditional personal digital assistant on steroids. It can complete tasks that involve multiple apps – for example, if you were planning a trip, it can offer a range of airline tickets, hotels, car rental, and dining options to choose from.
Rabbit put out a 25-minute-long keynote announcing its new product although if you’re anything like me, you’ll likely have more questions than answers by the time it’s over with. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – there’s just so much going on and it seems like such a capable device that you can’t help but wonder more about the inner workings.
Why not just stuff it into a smartphone, devices that already have better screens and cameras, then add in any extra required AI processing hardware? Surely we will learn more about it in time.
Rabbit is now accepting pre-orders for the R1 starting at $199 with no ongoing subscription required. The first wave of shipments are expected to go out in the March – April window, we’re told.
