If 2023 was the year of AI software, 2024 looks set to be the year of AI hardware.
Over the past few months, companies like Google, Samsung, Meta, and Microsoft have introduced smartphones and laptops—even glasses—that claim to integrate generative AI on a large scale. But this moment has also given rise to a new type of device focused on enabling users to interact with artificial intelligence.
Last month, customers took delivery of the first Rabbit R1s at an event held at the TWA Hotel in New York City. Colored in bright orange and about the size and shape of a pack of sticky notes, the device has a compact, 2.88-inch display, a camera in the upper-right corner, a scroll wheel, and a button on the side to activate volume controls. The idea, according to Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu, is to reduce the number of steps it takes to do something you currently do on a smartphone.
“Our mission is to create the simplest computer—so intuitive you don’t need to learn how to use it,” Lyu said during the company’s Consumer Electronics Show keynote in January.
Rabbit says users can just say a command to the R1 instead of going through pages of apps and notifications while trying not to get distracted by Instagram. The device will then meet this demand using an artificial intelligence technology they call ‘Big Action Model’.
At least that’s the idea.
Early adopters of rabbit
Daniel Ko is a partial CFO for AI startups. He says his business doesn’t currently include Rabbit, he’s just a customer for now, but he sees great potential in the R1.
“Personally, I bought it because it looked super cool and was, in a way, the first generation of something that could maybe be like the next iPhone,” Ko told ABC Audio.
“I guess I’m just wondering right now,” said Danny Cole, an R1-owning artist living in New York City. He says he likes the idea of a device that will get people away from smartphones.
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“I think it’s hard for us to predict whether phones will be the answer to our needs ten years from now, twenty years from now,” Cole said, adding: “They probably aren’t!”
Jonah Cohn is a college student in Chicago. He told ABC Audio that he came to New York just to pick up his R1 in person.
“I definitely see myself as one of the early adopters of the series,” said Cohn, who also owns Apple’s mixed reality headset Vision Pro, which went on sale earlier this year. “I’m someone who really likes to try things from the first generation so I can get a handle on what’s going to take over the rest of our world.”
But he also said early adoption is risky; especially when it comes to artificial intelligence, which has come under criticism for being unreliable and inaccurate.
“I was afraid I would buy this thing and it wouldn’t do what it said. And I haven’t figured that out yet, because, you know, even though I just got it, I’ve only had it for five minutes, you know? said Cohn.
Humane AI Pin
Rabbit isn’t the only tech company staking a claim in the field of AI devices. Humane, a company founded by several former Apple employees, recently began selling the $699 AI Pin, a wearable device measuring 1 3/4 inches square and 1/3 inch thick that attaches to a person’s clothing like a lapel pin.
“AI Pin is a completely new type of computer,” Humane CEO Bethany Bongiorno told ABC Audio. Despite its price tag and $24-a-month phone plan, Pin is not a smartphone replacement, he said.
“When you had a smartphone, it did not replace your laptop. But it created a very different relationship with your laptop,” Bongiorno said. “It was much more focused; you used it for some of the things your laptop was great at. You went to your smartphone for the things it was really great at. And we find that Pin allows you to have a more focused relationship with your phone. “
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According to Humane, the phone is used for things like watching videos and browsing social media. Meanwhile, the AI Pin is intended to perform tasks such as sending messages, setting reminders, and making calls. Pin’s responses are read aloud by an automated voice, like Rabbit. These answers are produced by a combination of Big Language Models (AI technology that can understand and reproduce human language) from companies like OpenAI and Google. Bongiorno said this is all to prevent users from getting caught up in their phones.
“I prefer my badge in my memories more during the day because I choose to stay there,” he said. “Personally, I want to be able to survive in the outside world with my family and friends, and I want to try to use my phone less.”
But reviews of the AI Pin have been largely negative so far.
Pin panics.
Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, who goes by the name “MKBHD” on YouTube, titled his review of Humane’s device “The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed… For Now.” A review from tech publication The Verge states that “AI Pin is not worth the money.”
Engadget Reviews Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low told ABC Audio that the device “doesn’t solve any real problems” and “doesn’t know how to be good at it.”
“When the Humane AI Pin reviews came out, there was a huge backlash where many reviews, including mine, were negative,” said Wired Reviews Editor Julian Chokkattu.
He said his complaints about the Pin include everything from its limited features to unreliable answers generated by artificial intelligence. Several commenters said that AI Pin took too long to respond to questions, meaning they often turned to their smartphones for answers. Others have encountered overheating issues that make the AI Pin uncomfortable to plug in.
Humane says most of these issues have been resolved with software updates and that ” [the] Ai Pin will become smarter and stronger over time.” The company added that they will continue to make improvements.
In a statement, the company told ABC News that the AI Pin represents “just the first page of the first chapter of an entirely new product category.”
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But Chokkattu said buyers should avoid purchasing missing devices: “My request would be for them to just ship finished products, but unfortunately we’re not in that world anymore.” Meanwhile, he said, most people already have a device that does everything AI devices try to do.
“Personally, I think none of these emerging devices offer anything close to dethroning the smartphone,” Chokkattu said.
Real-world AI devices
Not everyone had a disappointing experience with these first AI devices. Rabbit R1 early adopter Jonah Cohn of Chicago also has the Humane AI Pin. He says it proved helpful when he recently came across a group of people dressed in costumes at a park.
“I saw a bunch of people cosplaying in Star Wars costumes and I thought, ‘Hey, why are people cosplaying in Star Wars costumes in Chicago today?’ I thought. Is something going on?’ And within seconds he was able to tell me that there was a convention going on down the street,” Cohn said. “That was pretty cool. I didn’t have to pull out my phone, I didn’t have to break away from whatever social interaction I was in. I just asked very quickly.
Even so, Cohn said that aside from the technical features of the device, the Pin also presented some social challenges, such as when he first plugged it into the grocery store.
“When I went to the cash register, I felt a little embarrassed and immediately took off my shirt,” he said. “Because I know it’s not a record, but the man sitting at the counter, whom I barely know, doesn’t know that. And I’m like, ‘is this guy recording me?’ “I don’t want to put him in an awkward situation like this.”
About a week after the Rabbit event, Danny Cole tested his new R1 at McCarren Park in Brooklyn, New York. The device responds when asked “what’s the weather like right now?” He answered questions such as: and “Who was president in 1955?”
R1 was also able to detect things around it using its camera system, saying things like “those look like pigeons” and “that’s a Jeep Wrangler.”
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But Cole admits the device is far from perfect.
“I had a song in my head and there were some lyrics that I remember very clearly. “And I said, ‘Oh, I bet I could ask Rabbit what song that is,'” Cole told ABC Audio. “I asked Rabbit, and he gave me a different song. I tried over and over again, but the song just didn’t come out right.”
After a week of ownership, Cole said he was disappointed with his purchase. It’s missing features he expected the R1 to have, and its reliance on AI for its answers means it could be buggy.
“It’s sad to say, but it’s not working completely reliably yet,” Cole said.
Rabbit told ABC News: [the R1’s responses] It is based solely on the large language models it uses. Rabbit also started pushing out software updates to fix some issues.
But for now, Cole’s smartphone isn’t going anywhere.
“It’s really nice to show people that it works,” Rabbit said of the R1. “But it won’t do anything until you trust it will work.”
Hear the full story on ABC Audio:
Artificial intelligence devices are here, but are they useful? appeared first on abcnews.go.com