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Journalism of Courage
When Apple dropped the first iPhone on the tech scene in 2007, it rewrote the smartphone rulebook. Fast forward nearly a decade, and smartphones have morphed into these devices we spend hours on, rather than tools that save us precious time. A couple of tech startups are stepping up now to refocus on the practical side of smartphones, so you can finally give your neck a break from staring down.
Following Humane’s AI Pin debut last November, a new player has entered the scene with an innovative approach to replacing pocketable rectangular slabs with, well, another smaller rectangular slab. “Our mission is to create the simplest computer, something so intuitive that you don’t need to learn how to use it,” said Jesse Lyu, Rabbit’s founder, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And judging by the keynote, the idea does seem pretty promising.
Enter the Rabbit R1, a pint-sized pocketable device fueled by a natural language operating system. The goal is to make app interactions history by presenting a fresh approach to managing our lives. Lyu pointed out that smartphones have become time-consuming entertainment hubs, flipping their original purpose. He also threw shade at the concept of apps itself, calling it cumbersome and blamed it for making us squint at screens for eternities.
Rabbit aims to untangle this mess by unleashing a tiny pocketable device that responds to your voice for every smartphone task imaginable – hailing a ride, ordering food, and groceries, and the usual stuff like sending messages, making calls, and jamming to Spotify. During the keynote, Lyu demonstrated how Rabbit OS, the proprietary operating system behind the R1, seamlessly integrates with these services. What sets Rabbit OS apart is that it doesn’t just connect to third-party services; it essentially “sees” the apps and performs actions on your behalf, streamlining everything through simple voice commands.
For instance, playing a track on Spotify becomes a breeze with Rabbit’s LAM (Large Action Model) understanding the steps and translating them into action through Rabbit OS. The company boasts that this model is trained to recognise “all mobile and desktop environments,” promising a robust handling of tasks.
The magic behind these capabilities is, unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence. Rabbit OS comes bundled with an AI model known as a Large Action Model (LAM). “The large language model understands what you say, while the large action model gets things done,” explained Lyu. Equipping an operating system with this model allows it to execute actions solely through your voice, eliminating the need for app fumbling. Rabbit OS can even learn by demonstration, remembering how you perform a task and replicating it when asked. Rabbit’s makers say they’ve trained numerous sequences for popular apps, and the R1’s abilities will only grow over time.
Now, the burning question is how all of this will play out in the real world. The R1 offers some standalone capabilities, and there’s a web portal called Rabbit Hole where you can log in to all your services. If you want to teach the device something like Photoshop, Rabbit’s got you covered with virtual machines on their web portal. However, the real challenge lies in making this work seamlessly for a myriad of users on various devices and platforms. It’s a tough nut to crack, but Rabbit seems determined to figure it out.
At a quick glance, Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin may seem pretty alike. Both boast app-less operating systems – Rabbit OS for the R1 and Cosmos for the Humane AI Pin. They both aim to streamline your queries by automatically directing them to the right tools instead of requiring you to download and manage apps.
But there are still some key differences. Judging from the AI Pin demos, the device appears to function more like a wearable LLM-powered search engine. Its current abilities convey the idea that it’s a ChatGPT-like companion you can converse with. But there are some handy productivity-enhancing features too. For example, a “catch me up” option summarises your email inbox and texts. You can even use its built-in camera to scan food and receive nutritional information, offering insights into your daily food consumption. Real-time translation is another handy feature for seamless communication across language barriers.
Humane AI also has a completely different approach to the ‘apps problem.’ Rabbit R1 takes a direct approach by mimicking your phone actions without relying on app-specific APIs – and likely processes everything in the cloud. This means no formal partnerships with the apps it plans to support. On the flip side, Humane plans to add similar capabilities in the future, such as navigation and shopping, but with a different strategy. The company aims to collaborate with app developers, allowing them to build their own tools for integration.
Ultimately, since Rabbit’s approach is more open-ended and because it doesn’t require the company to pool resources with the apps it wants to support, the potential for what it can do is boundless. You can train the AI to perform any task you can do on your smartphone. On the other hand, Humane takes a tighter approach since it wants developers to build their own tools that’ll run Humane’s platform.
Then there are differences in the hardware department. The Humane AI Pin is a vastly different device and seems to be aiming for much more. It has a 13MP camera, a built-in projector displaying information on your hand, a touchpad, and a Trust Light signaling when you’re recording. It also offers various accessories to secure it to your shirt, all powered by an octa-core Qualcomm chip. Essentially, it’s a summonable companion whenever you need it.
Meanwhile, the Rabbit R1 is aiming to rest where your smartphone does – and maybe even replace it one day – rather than on your chest. With a speaker, a 2.88-inch touchscreen display, and a rotating camera called the “rabbit eye” for photos and videos, the R1 differs significantly in hardware, likely contributing to its lower price of $199 compared to the $699 Humane AI Pin.
As of writing, Humane has barely demonstrated functionalities beyond the ones mentioned above, even as it’s working on additional use cases, such as the ability to shop and navigate. On the other hand, Rabbit R1’s keynote, though attempting to cast a much wider net to cover a much broader range of capabilities, lacked proper demonstrations. It’s conceivable that future software updates could fill gaps on either device, making them more alike. Ultimately, since both devices aim to replace smartphones, they might converge into something more similar in the future. But of course, we’d have to wait and see how it all plays out.
