Startup Debuts Pocket AI Companion, Sells Out 10,000 In One Day (theverge.com) 22
A startup called Rabbit sold out of its first batch of pocket AI companions a day after it was debuted at CES 2024. The company announced on X that it sold 10,000 units in just a day. "When we started building r1, we said internally that we'd be happy if we sold 500 devices on launch day," Rabbit writes. "In 24 hours, we already beat that by 20x!" The Verge reports: Rabbit introduced the R1 during CES on Tuesday, which comes with a small 2.88-inch touchscreen that runs on the company's own Rabbit OS. It uses a "Large Action Model" that works as a "sort of universal controller for apps," according to my colleague David Pierce, who got to try out the device during the showcase. This allows it to do things like play music, buy groceries, and send messages through a single interface without having to use your phone. It also lets you train the device how to interact with a certain app. A second batch is available for preorder from Rabbit's website with an expected delivery date between April and May 2024. The first batch of products are expected to start shipping in March.
Cloud - pass (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA:
[...} even that one couldnâ(TM)t do much because of spotty hotel Wi-Fi
Meaning the device is at least partly just a lightweight frontend to a cloud AI doing the heavy lifting.
Meaning it won't work without the internet.
And most importantly, you can bet your ass the manufacturer will collect everything you say or do with the gadget and monetize it.
Hard pass...
Re: (Score:2)
... you can bet your ass the manufacturer will collect everything you say or do with the gadget and monetize it.
You are more than likely correct, but it might be worth checking their fine print.
Re: (Score:3)
Meaning it won't work without the internet.
Of course... its purpose is (apparently) to "interact with your apps" (your other cloud-based services) which are internet-based. It seems to be it tries to be a vendor-neutral Alexa. You teach it which apps you use and how they work (somehow) then it can fetch information, make purchases or send messages at your request.
My question is why people would need a dedicated device for that (an ugly underpowered tablet of sorts), when a mobile phone app would work as well and is less risky business.
Re: (Score:3)
I read a review on it that made it sound very invasive. You would basically give it all your account credentials for everything you interact with in order for it to do anything useful for you. Its really just a Mediatek chipset in a box with less capability than a cheap cellphone. Any smarts are elsewhere on some server.
Re: Cloud - pass (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Hard pass...
Indeed. Same here.
Re: (Score:1)
They're going to collect a fixed amount of money per device for a hardware product. But will have to pay an unknown future amount for cloud and AI traffic. The math eventually catches up.
Pebble watch ran on the same business model. Collected a ton of money on pre-orders too.
Rabbit (Score:3)
Rabbit, isn't that the sex toy for women? Cool that they would add AI to it.
Rabid For Rabbit. (Score:1)
AI will see myself out.
For once a gizmo that actually looks like (Score:1)
...its Slashdot icon: a tricorder.
are expected to start shipping in March. (Score:2)
So at the moment its vaporware...
I'd bet that anyone who buys one of these has already got a cellphone.
Why is it a hardware device and not an app? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
No, you can't. It has to be client/server because the server is an entire data center (or two or three).
Re: (Score:2)
How much datacenter is just for storing other people's conversations?
Like a smart watch, only dumber (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It looks like the wrote the word "AI" on a Wio Terminal with a marker: https://www.seeedstudio.com/Wi... [seeedstudio.com]
Some guesses (Score:4, Interesting)
I took a look at the keynote. It's good, exciting work. But similar work _will_ be done by Apple and Google etc. who will bake somewhat similar functionality into their desktops, apps, OSes, home devices and mobiles in due time. Larger corporations have more inertia.
Rabbit's device is cool. It's Agent AI model is cool. But their hardware _is_ inferior to a modern phone. Why then did Rabbit made their own device? Why not a $50 app? I think it's because Apple/Google app store restrictions prevent 'superapps' that can be scripted with new code, that run a background hidden web browser (*). A custom device bypasses app store restrictions - they can do what they want.
What I do not understand is how Rabbit can sustain free usage of their 'LAM' LLM _indefinitely_ from a one-time $199 device sale. Even I'd they do make a profit on each device, that's not a lot of money for operations. Also they claim to not be selling user data. So what will fund their operational running in perpetuity? Will Rabbit instead sell its LLM trained for free by millions of customers l, to third parties? Or will they sell insights to businesses of how customers _really_ use their products? Do they want to be bought by FAANG? License patents? I would query their business model before investing.
(*) I suspect how their device works is this: for well-known apps with APIs like Uber, it users the vendors public API. For others, their LAM LLM somehow generates a script to carry out required tasks on websites via an automated headless browser session that runs on-device ( using something like phantom.js or Chromium embedded). Maybe their scripting is based off an image-recognition-centric programming framework like Sikuli (https://github.com/RaiMan/SikuliX1/). However that would break if the website changed a lot. Maybe the shared LLM helps cope with such changes.
Re: (Score:2)
Long term? What long term? This has all the hallmarks of a company posturing in order to be bought out. I'm sure "long term" to them is less than a year. If there's not a serious offer by then they'll call it a loss, close up shop, and open a new one developing some other ridiculous buzzword-based product.
Re: Some guesses (Score:2)
I was thinking along the same lines.. what's 'long term' regarding hardware?
It would make more sense to offer hardware with a set lifetime - say, $199 for 1 year usage. After that, you can reconfigure the device to use a third party LLM of your choosing. But no support.
GImme gimme (Score:3)
sounds a bit like an ipod touch (Score:2)
Sounds a bit like an ipod touch, where as long as you have wifi you can do all of the things mentioned...
So lets see, why don't we add mobile broadband to an ipod touch, then we could do all that good stuff everywhere...? Maybe even add mobile voice too, then we'd have a dynamite product.
Wonder why no-one has ever thought of that.
IFTTT (Score:2)