If 2023 was the year of AI software, 2024 is poised to be the year of AI hardware.
Over the past few months, companies like Google, Samsung, Meta, and Microsoft have shown off smartphones, laptops, and even glasses that they claim to have highly integrated generative artificial intelligence, but this moment also marks the birth of a new type of device that puts user interaction with AI at its core.
Customers received the first Rabbit R1s at an event at the TWA Hotel in New York City last month. Bright orange and about the size and shape of a stack of Post-it notes, the device has a compact 2.88-inch screen, a camera in the top-right corner, a scroll wheel, and a button on the side to activate voice control. The idea, according to Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu, is to reduce the number of steps required to do things you currently do on your smartphone.
Rabbit CEO Jesse Liu answers questions from reporters at the TWA Hotel in New York on April 23, 2024. Michael Dobsky/ABC News
“Our mission is to build the simplest computer — a computer so intuitive that you don’t have to learn how to use it,” Liu said during the company’s Consumer Electronics Show keynote in January.
Instead of sifting through pages of apps and notifications while trying not to get distracted by Instagram, Rabbitt says users can simply speak commands to the R1, and the device will fulfill their requests using an artificial intelligence technique the company calls “Large Action Model.”
At least, that’s the idea.
Early Rabbit Adopters
Daniel Koh is part CFO of an AI startup, and while he says his job doesn’t currently involve Rabbit (it’s just a customer for now), he sees big potential in R1.
“Personally, I bought it because it looked really cool. In a way, it’s the first generation of a product that’s like the next generation of iPhone,” Ko told ABC Audio.
“I think it’s just a curiosity right now,” says Danny Cole, a New York-based artist who also owns an R1, and who says he likes the idea of a device that gets people away from their smartphones.
“I think it’s hard to predict whether mobile phones will meet our needs in 10 or 20 years’ time,” Cole said, adding, “Probably not.”
Jonah Cohn is a college student from Chicago who told ABC Audio that he came to New York just to pick up the R1 in person.
“I definitely consider myself a serial early adopter,” says Cohn, who also owns Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, which was released earlier this year. “I’m really the kind of person who likes to try out first-gen stuff to get a sense of what’s coming out into the world.”
College student Jonah Cohn holds a Humane AI Pin in the palm of his hand on April 29, 2024. Courtesy of Jonah Cohn
But he also said there are risks to early adoption, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence, which has been criticized for being unreliable and inaccurate.
“I was scared I’d get this device and it wouldn’t work the way it was described. I don’t know that yet because I just got it and I’ve only had it for about five minutes,” Kohn said.
A human-like AI pin
Rabbit isn’t the only tech company trying to establish itself in the AI gadget space: Humane, a company founded by a few ex-Apple employees, recently began selling the AI Pin, a $699 wearable device that is 1 3/4 inches square and 1/3 inch thick and attaches to a person’s clothing like a lapel pin.
“AI Pin is an entirely new type of computer,” Humane CEO Bethany Bongiorno told ABC Audio. She noted that despite its high price tag and $24-a-month phone plan, the Pin isn’t intended to replace a smartphone.
“When you get a smartphone, it doesn’t replace your laptop, but it has really changed your relationship with your laptop,” Bongiorno says. “It’s become a lot more focused. To do certain things that laptops are good at, you used your laptop. To do things that smartphones are really good at, you used your smartphone. Our view is that Pin has allowed you to have a much more focused relationship with your phone.”
According to Humane, people use their phones to watch videos, scroll through social media, etc. Meanwhile, AI Ping is meant to handle tasks like sending messages, setting reminders and searching. Ping’s answers are read out by an automated voice, just like Rabbit. These answers are generated by a combination of large-scale language models (artificial intelligence technology that can understand and generate human language) from companies like OpenAI and Google. Bongiorno said this is all an effort to keep users from becoming addicted to their phones.
“I want to wear the pin in more moments throughout the day because I want to be in the moment,” she says. “I personally want to live my life in the world with my family and friends, and I want to be less on my phone.”
However, reviews of the AI Pin have so far been overwhelmingly negative.
The pin is panned
Tech critic Marques Brownlee, known on YouTube as “MKBHD,” titled his review of the Humane device “The worst product I’ve ever reviewed… so far.” A review in tech publication The Verge noted that “the AI Pin isn’t worth the money.”
Engadget deputy reviews editor Cherlynn Low told ABC Audio that the device “doesn’t solve any real problems” and that she “just doesn’t know what to do with it.”
“When the Humane AI Pin reviews came out, there was a lot of backlash because many reviews, including mine, were negative,” Wired reviews editor Julian Cioccatou said.
He said complaints about the Pin range from limited functionality to unreliable AI-generated answers. Some reviewers said the AI Pin took too long to respond to their questions, so they often went back to their smartphones to get answers. Others encountered overheating issues, making the AI Pin uncomfortable to wear.
Humane says many of these issues have been resolved with software updates, ” [the] “Ai Pin will get smarter and more powerful over time,” he said, adding that the company will continue to improve it.
In a statement, the company told ABC News that the AI Pin is “just the first page of the first chapter of an entirely new product category.”
But Chokkatou said buyers should hold off on buying devices that aren’t fully built: “I’d rather they shipped me the finished product, but unfortunately that’s not the time anymore.” Meanwhile, he said, most people already have devices that can do all the things AI gadgets are trying to do.
“Personally, I don’t think any of the devices that have come out recently have anything to offer that could take over from the smartphone,” Chokkattu said.
AI Gadgets in the Real World
Not everyone has had disappointing experiences with these early AI gadgets: Jonah Cohn, an early Rabbit R1 adopter in Chicago, has a Humane AI Pin and says he found it useful, especially after recently stumbling upon a group of costumed people at a park.
A Rabbit R1 and a Humane AI Pin sit on a table with their charging case and carrying case on April 29, 2024. Courtesy of Jonah Kohn
“I saw a bunch of people dressed up in Star Wars costumes and I was like, ‘Hey, is everyone in Chicago dressed up in Star Wars costumes today? What’s going on?’ And within a few seconds, he told me there was a convention happening across the street,” Cohn says. “That was super cool. I didn’t have to pull out my phone or take time out of any social interaction. I just had to ask a really quick question.”
Still, aside from the device’s technical capabilities, the pin posed some social challenges, like the first time he wore it to a grocery store, Kohn said.
“When I got to the register, I got a little embarrassed and quickly took my shirt off,” he said, “because I knew I wasn’t recording, but the guy at the register, who I know, didn’t know that, and I didn’t want him to go through that awkward situation of, ‘Is this guy recording me?’
About a week after the Rabbit event, Danny Cole tested the new R1 at McCarren Park in Brooklyn, New York. When prompted, the device accurately answered questions like, “What’s the weather like now?” and “Who was the president in 1955?”
Additionally, the R1 could use its camera system to identify objects around it and say things like, “This looks like a pigeon” or “This is a Jeep Wrangler.”
But Cole acknowledges that the device is far from perfect.
“I had a song in my head, the words memorized so clearly, and I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I can ask Bunny what song this is,'” Cole told ABC Audio. “I asked Bunny, and he told me a different song. I tried again and again, but I just couldn’t get it right.”
A week into his purchase, Cole said he was disappointed with it, finding the R1 lacking features he was hoping for and relying on AI to respond can be inaccurate.
Artist Danny Cole test drives a Rabbit R1 on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, on April 30, 2024. Michael Dobsky/ABC News
“It’s unfortunate, but frankly, it’s not working reliably yet,” Cole said.
“These are the words of Rabbitt to ABC News,” he told ABC News. [the R1’s responses] “Rabbit is based solely on the large language models that it uses.” Rabbit has also started sending out software updates to address some of the issues.
But for now, Kohl’s smartphone isn’t going anywhere.
“It’s really cool to show people, see it in action,” he said of the Rabbit R1, “but it’s no use until we’re sure it actually works.”
Listen to the full story via ABC Audio:
