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The Rabbit R1. is a small device that promises to be revolutionary. This device uses artificial intelligence in a very small box with an astonishing design.

 

The Rabbit R1

The Rabbit R1

An orange box with a screen aims to interact with the applications on its phone on behalf of its user.

Jesse Lyu. The founder of the Californian start-up Rabbit, Inc. took advantage of CES in Las Vegas to lift the veil on this future digital companion powered by AI.

The Rabbit R1, the AI-based assistant, will be launched in spring 2024.

Much stronger than Alexa, Google Home, and SIRI

Taking the form of a small orange box that fits in your pocket, the Rabbit R1 integrates a screen, two microphones, a speaker, and a camera that rotates 360°. Also: a wheel for scrolling on its screen, a USB-C port, and a SIM card port. In 4G, it does not need to be paired with a smartphone to work. It is therefore connected to the cloud that will benefit from artificial intelligence to support us in many daily tasks.

Ready for everything

Large ears open when a button is pressed, and the Rabbit waits for vocal requests from its users to execute. Here, the idea is not to ask it, like Alexa, Google Home, or SIRI, our zealous and aging assistants, to turn on a connected bulb or what the weather is today. Even if it can start listening to our current music tracks on our favorite streaming platform, R1 is better than that. Much better.

Answer complex queries

• ·       Travel reservation

For example, you can ask: “Book me a VTC for six people with luggage. Departure from the office for the airport at 6 p.m. In a few seconds, the R1 executes and offers you a car for which you will validate the reservation on the screen.

• ·       Assistant cook

You can ask the gadget to "suggest me a recipe with what I have available for a dinner with my son to make in 15 minutes" by pointing its camera at your open refrigerator. R1 will fire its neurons and carry out its function once more. Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), identifying the available foods and locating a recipe that can be completed in the allocated time only takes a few seconds.

• ·       Vacation planning

Even more forceful: "My wife and son and I would like to visit New York from February 15 to February 18. We are searching for an Airbnb that has a view of Central Park, and we will also require a rental car during this time." After a few moments of reflection, the Rabbit R1 will offer you several options from which you will choose the ones that suit you. Magic!

The secret of Rabbit Inc.?

Artificial intelligence, of course, but also its ability to aggregate and make mobile or computer applications work together which, until now, did not know how to communicate with each other. For this, its founder claims to have trained his clever rabbit on countless models of use.

Down the rabbit hole

For the user, all that remains is to configure the beast on a computer before using it. Named The Rabbit Hole Portal (literally, “Rabbit Hole”), this dedicated interface allows you to associate the services you use with your big-eared companion and give them the access keys. Thus, during a request, the R1 will then automatically go to the service providers with whom we are used to interacting... just like from the screen of our smartphone.

Suspense precedes release

The R1 has everything to simplify our lives. No need to spend an evening on your Booking, Airbnb, Air France, Avis, etc. applications to prepare and organize a future trip. Nor to rack your brains with Marmiton or Cookidoo (if you have a Thermomix) to find the recipe to accommodate our leftover food in the fridge in record time.

The fact remains that the presentation of the Rabbit R1 by its founder was recorded on video, that the technical sheet of the device has not been communicated (what processor, what resolution for its camera, what autonomy, etc.), and that, for the moment, the promise seems almost too good to be true.

A strong competitor

Especially since the Rabbit R1, currently on pre-order, will only be sold for 199 dollars (or 183 euros) and without a monthly subscription. Nothing to do with the one that appears to be its direct competitor and which was unveiled at the end of 2023, the AI Pin from the Humane firm. Offering more or less the same services (although not having a screen), the little companion in the form of a badge to wear on one's person is sold for 699 dollars (640 euros), plus a subscription of 24 dollars per month (22 euros)!

Fears of technological progress

While waiting to one day, we hope, be able to test these scientific products (what will we call them, the “AI-assistants”?), there is no doubt that is emerging today in the heart of Silicon Valley a new generation of small devices which, by taking advantage of the possibilities offered by an increasingly delightful (and worrying) AI, risk disrupting our lives... The Next Big Thing!