There is a new consumer tech product that is taking the internet by storm. No, Apple has not released the iPhone 16 yet. The Galaxy S24 Ultra announcement, too, is few days to go.
In fact, the Rabbit r1 is not even a phone. It is a first-of-its-kind AI companion hardware which will hit the market later this year.
This has not stopped it from breaking the internet. The official keynote of CEO and founder, Jesse Lyu, introducing the r1 has already garnered over 2 million view in just four days.
The fact that Rabbit Tech has secured over 30,000 pre-0rders with just one functional unit, you know the interest is really there.
The number is beyond what the startup expected as they would have been happy with just 500 sales on launch day. Instead, they ended up with complete first batch of production run, 10,000.
Since then the company has announced two more batches.
Rabbit r1 is not your typical smartphone
To an untrained eye, this pocketable AI device may not look any different than the new batch of Android smartphones. It has that flat frame design with rounded corners, complete with a bright color scheme.
The big screen on the front and the camera accompanying it make it seem like one of Samsung’s flip phones. But the camera can rotate front and back, hence the name “360° Rotational Rabbit Eye.”
Add to it, the Push-to-talk button and analog scroll wheel, the Rabbit r1 is not quite a smartphone.
Rabbit r1 would be a lousy phone if it were one
Thank God! it is not.
Cause if it were one, it would be a lousy one and wouldn’t get the pinch of the fame it is currently enjoying.
Just look at its hardware specs – it is running on six-year-old MediaTek Helio P35 chipset maxing out on 2.3GHz.
It ships with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage and there’s no other option.
The screen is a 2.88-inch TFT panel and the 8MP camera only shots 1080p.
So what exactly is the Rabbit r1?
Rabbit r1 is part of the growing trend of new breed of AI-powered products.
And not just any AI, it’s an Large Action Model, kind of like an extention of Large Language Models that you have come to know about.
LLM’s like ChatGPT are better at understanding human command than mainstream AI assistant like Siri and Alexa, but you can really get things done with them.
This is where the Rabbit r1 comes in.
It is an AI agent that does chores for you just like the voice assistant in your phone. That said, it has better context to process your command just like an LLM.
Enters Rabbit OS
Founder Lyu was very keen on distinguishing the Rabbit r1 from contemporary smartphones and AI models.
And the heart of it is the Rabbit OS. Think of it as an abstract layer that sits between you and the application ecosystem.
You don’t have to go through hassle of going through apps to get your tasks done. Rabbit OS will take care of it for you.
All you have to do is specify the services you like and the provider you prefer on the Rabbit OS web portal. Log in to the service and you are good to go.
Just start giving commands using the Push-to-talk button.
Since it is powered by natural language model, you don’t have to focus on the using the right keyword and trigger as you do with Google Assistant and Siri.
At the keynote presentation, founder Lyu showed the power of Rabbit r1 through some real life scenarios including playing music off Spotify, ordering food, booking cab, and even planning a holiday.
The computer vision Rabbit eye camera can scan the environment and suggest bunch of actions for your. For instance, it can scan for ingredients in your fridge and suggest and recipe accordingly.
Furthermore, it has the ability to translate languages in real-time.
In contrast to app-based OS like iOS and Android, Rabbit OS works on interface instead of traditional API and agents. As a result, you can train it yourself using the Rabbit web portal.
Is Rabbit r1 too Good to be True?
So far so good, right? However, Rabbit r1 is yet to hit the market. And you still have not seen any hands-on video except for the keynote demonstration.
Thus, has exciting as it sounds, we’ll have to wait to see how practical is it. And even it is, would you really trust an AI with important job like that?
Going by the pre-order numbers, the answer seem to be Yes. People are willing to gamble with Rabbit r1 especially given its $199 price tag.