CES 2024: Rabbit r1 AI Assistant Wants to Do Tasks for You

[heretiq]

If Apple plans to make Siri subscription, they had best have a trial period to reassure all those people who have had such trouble with Siri for so long that they have given it up. Siri AI is going to need a publicity agent.

Siri is a user interface to Apple services — not a service itself — so Siri will never have a subscription charge. This is another reason the r1‘s future is dubious at best: it is a separate, paid, hardware product competing with an integrated, free software feature from its main competitors (Apple, Google, Samsung, Huawei, Oppo and others). Siri and the other software-based agents will improve with the underlying device’s OS and hardware update cycles.

My prediction is that the lifecycle of this product is months at best as Apple’s new Ferret LLM (Multimodal, low-hallucination, Flash memory/device based, low latency LLM) which is likely to debut at WWDC will address many of the pain points that made the idea of a dedicated AI user interface appliance something to consider. The r1 will be useful on a shelf with a sign that says “Skate to where the puck is going.”

 

[heretiq]

I’m getting this for the Teenage Engineering industrial design alone.

Smart man. But don’t open the box as the value will immediately evaporate.

 

[xDENTALPLANx]

You will never hear this product mentioned ever again

 

[heretiq]

If it can basically operate every app on your smartphone then there wouldn't be a need for a smartphone.

However, you are completely right that Apple and Google are 100% going to implement similar features to their digital assistants this year.

The market-leading hardware that only the big tech giants can deliver (at competitive prices) combined with this kind of AI will have products like r1 become obsolete almost before they get a chance to launch.

If this r1 becomes even a small success then it's only because it's launching in the vacuum before companies like Apple, Google and Samsung launch their takes on AI and start competing with each other.

However, the $200 price tag with no subscription could make this product a hit considering that Apple will most likely have AI Siri only be avail be on iPhones 16 and beyond, and might also require additional "iCloud AI" subscription fees.

Very good points. However, Siri is a user interface to Apple services — not a service itself. As such, making Siri a subscription service would be a fundamental philosophical shift with (a) unclear reception due to Siri‘s poor performance and (b) limited financial value to Apple — so I don’t think that will ever happen. I believe Apple sees Siri AI for its redemptive value — i.e., restoring the faith of people disappointed by Apple due to poor Siri performance — but we will all find out soon.

 

[TJ82]

Doubt it could handle anything complex like an actual workflow for most professionals, but it's a step in the right direction. For now it could maybe handle shopping, like checking a website for a product coming back in stock and quickly ordering it? Sales sniping, that kind of thing? That would save me a lot of time every year!

 

[RVijay007]

Very good points. However, Siri is a user interface to Apple services — not a service itself. As such, making Siri a subscription service would be a fundamental philosophical shift with (a) unclear reception due to Siri‘s poor performance and (b) limited financial value to Apple — so I don’t think that will ever happen. I believe Apple sees Siri AI for its redemptive value — i.e., restoring the faith of people disappointed by Apple due to poor Siri performance — but we will all find out soon.

Siri+ incoming. Pay more to get access to LLM enhancements! Also, will be available to Apple One customers … (year later) Apple One price increase by $5/month, Starting Feb 2026!

 

[Bug-Creator]

For a moment I thought had fallen into a coma.

Just a little bit under 3 months it must have been.

 

[MBX]

He makes it sound like it's sooooo much better than a smartphone but it's not.

Why would I want to carry an additional device with me next to my phone?

My phone can do all of that If I really want it to.

 

[Taustin Powers]

The software part sounds cool. But does it really need dedicated hardware?? The phone already in my pocket is more than capable of doing any of the tasks described. Should have invested more in a clever iOS/Android app to do all this, if you ask me. Someone else will inevitably do just that, making this hardware unnecessary.

 

[kirky29]

Why does it pronounce C as a K? Ko for Co and Killian for Cillian....

 

[Fraserpatty]

Very good points. However, Siri is a user interface to Apple services — not a service itself. As such, making Siri a subscription service would be a fundamental philosophical shift with (a) unclear reception due to Siri‘s poor performance and (b) limited financial value to Apple — so I don’t think that will ever happen. I believe Apple sees Siri AI for its redemptive value — i.e., restoring the faith of people disappointed by Apple due to poor Siri performance — but we will all find out soon.

I so hope you are right. It has been my belief that basic Siri, because it does not bring any more or less money to Apple, has not been maintained and upgraded the way it should have been because it didn’t bring in any more money, one way or the other. I would not be surprised to see Apple have basic Siri that is the interface with Apple services and devices remain free, with a bump up in price for premium Siri. I would very much like to be wrong.

 

[heretiq]

Siri+ incoming. Pay more to get access to LLM enhancements! Also, will be available to Apple One customers … (year later) Apple One price increase by $5/month, Starting Feb 2026!

We shall see!

 

[AndreDC]

Only if Siri could do half of that!

Seriously though... why with the resources Apple has can Siri not do that.
I'm not being a smart-a** here but it's a genuine question.
Their emphasis on privacy perhaps with building the models?

 

[3rdiguy]

Vapor…Where?

 

[heretiq]

I so hope you are right. It has been my belief that basic Siri, because it does not bring any more or less money to Apple, has not been maintained and upgraded the way it should have been because it didn’t bring in any more money, one way or the other. I would not be surprised to see Apple have basic Siri that is the interface with Apple services and devices remain free, with a bump up in price for premium Siri. I would very much like to be wrong.

I hope so too and not because I’m not willing to pay, but because I don’t want to lose the trust I have in Apple to deliver what it promises. I say this because I believe Siri has failed to deliver on the expectations for a reliable basic utility. Because of this, I think it would be bad form to say the Siri that fails 50% of the time is free, but you need to pay for the Siri that works better.

 

[aknabi]

Rabbit OS. Powered By LAM.
Founded by Sharks, funded by Vultures, created for Sheep.

JK... looks like a step in the right direction, sure throw $200 to play with it... but can see the big boys scraping the icing off this cake and incorporating it into their platforms (of course this could give an acquisition exit to these guys ala Oculus)

 

[Richsampson]

I have a funny feeling that this is going to become the next great big malware item listed on Mac rumors

 

[yannxou]

What about authentication and security? If my r1 is lost will I keep receiving pizzas from random people?

 

[Richsampson]

I expect this may definitely turn into a malware situation. Thanks to having to supply your login items for mini locations and webpages. I would not trust this to be very secure without much more information from the developer.

 

[yannxou]

I can't stand the idea of a bus full of people talking to their AI assistants. But at least they'll be useless in a concert and people will stop taking videos and focus on listening.

 

[Frantisekj]

I'm 100% the target for this. I want the future, the price is right, and no subscriptions? Hell yeah. But it just didn't do enough that my already-guaranteed to have device, my phone, does via the ChatGPT action button. I don't want push to talk tbh – I want always ready to listen to me and maybe even proactive responses and awareness, not just reactive. Their learning UI and such was the most impressive part and even that may be clunky in practice because your 'action' is borked with any one Discord update, Midjourney command change, etc. Good on them, though! Hardware is hard.

I think it is worth for say two years before phone OS will catch up.

 

[Rychiar]

So a robot that has all my logins and orders food and books hotels to anticipate what I’m doing? That sounds scary

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

"Teenager engineering" also known as 5x Markup on the retail price. Their stuff is so expensive.

 

[rubberfish]

SIM card - there's your subscription ...

interacting with Photoshop? and the app/photo are where exactly? on my Mac?

You don't need to use the SIM card. You can use WiFi.

 

[tomtad]

They are certainly onto something here with the software, a bit like humane are with the AI Pin, in that rather than a home screen with apps on you go into one by one you have an AI driven interface with connected services. I certainly believe this is where we're heading.

An example, let say I'm in a new city and I want to hire a bike. I should just be able to ask my phone to do that, or scan a code, and it's done. No downloading apps or creating accounts to do it.

Or say I want to buy some theatre tickets and send one of them to my friend along with a message on where we'll be meeting later and sharing my location. I can just ask the phone to do it.

The hardware, while nice looking, isn't it. This will be all on phones and watches/wearables.