diff --git a/blog/2024-04-28-rabbit-r1-there-is-hope.md b/blog/2024-04-28-rabbit-r1-there-is-hope.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..391074afb --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2024-04-28-rabbit-r1-there-is-hope.md @@ -0,0 +1,227 @@ +--- +slug: rabbit-r1-there-is-hope +title: rabbit r1, there is hope +date: 2024-04-28 +image: https://github.com/DidierRLopes/my-website/assets/25267873/8c4c9b26-62d9-46cf-8758-28c822d3fd2e +tags: ['rabbit r1', 'tech', 'review', 'ai', 'gadget'] +description: I can see a future where people use rabbit r1 for very particular use cases where phone is suboptimal. For instance, when multiple people want to interact with said phone (e.g. selecting music at a party without having to give phone away) and that is not ideal due to personal information on phone, or when the phone isn't ideal because it has too many distractions and user wants to focus on doing something (e.g. practicing a presentation using recording session and then asking for feedback). +--- + +
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+ +I can see a future where people use rabbit r1 for very particular use cases where phone is suboptimal. For instance, when multiple people want to interact with said phone (e.g. selecting music at a party without having to give phone away) and that is not ideal due to personal information on phone, or when the phone isn't ideal because it has too many distractions and user wants to focus on doing something (e.g. practicing a presentation using recording session and then asking for feedback). + + + + + +## What is the rabbit r1 + +Rabbit r1 was first introduced at CES 2024 as a pocket AI companion (watch the keynote [here](https://www.rabbit.tech/rabbit-r1)). + ++ +
+ +The main distinction over being just a "ChatGPT on-the-go" is the fact that they introduced what they call a Large Action Model (LAM), which is an agent capable of taking requests and making different function calls (e.g., translation, weather, finance, vision, taking notes, and more). + +There are now quite a few consumer products that are trying to win this category. Here are a few: + +- [AI pin](https://humane.com/) from Humane. MKBHD did a good [review](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitZV6k8zfA) on this product (or should I say 'bad review'?). + +- [pendant](https://www.limitless.ai/) from Limitless (previously Rewind AI). + +- [01](https://www.openinterpreter.com/) from Open Interpreter. I ordered this one because it's [open source](https://github.com/OpenInterpreter/open-interpreter) and I can build on top. + +While at the surface these devices are somewhat similar, they approach the problem from a different angle. AI pin relies on users to clip their device to their clothes, the pendant is put on the collar of your top and 01 is held handheld. Rabbit r1 is also handheld, but unlike the others contains a screen to interact with - so it's closer to a phone than the others. + +Nonetheless, according to Jesse (rabbit's CEO) they are currently the most successful AI device in terms of sales (sold over 100,000 rabbit r1 in a few weeks). + +## How I got my r1 + +My wife saw me watching a few videos of rabbit r1 and decided to surprise me with one, a one-time $199 purchase without any subscription fee. I wonder why she didn’t do it when I was watching Apple Vision Pro 😄. + +But they didn’t ship immediately. My batch was only meant to be shipped sometime in June. However, rabbit tweeted that there would be a Pickup Party in NYC. I added notifications on their X account and once they announced that registrations were open I was ready. I RSVPd and this week I attended the event to grab mine. + +The event was well organized. One thing is for sure, rabbit knows how to build a community and hype with their users. + ++ +
+ +The keynote presented at the event can be found [here](https://www.rabbit.tech/live-unboxing). In it, rabbit's CEO unboxes a rabbit r1 and shows everything it can do on stage. + +## My experience + +I have been playing with rabbit r1 for a couple of days now. A few funny things I've done since: + +- Jailbreak rabbit r1 to say [f*ck which falls outside the guidelines](https://x.com/didier_lopes/status/1783335809459859708) + +- Ask it what LLM it was using under the hood, to which it said [it was using a fine-tuned version of OpenAI's GPT-3](https://x.com/didier_lopes/status/1783346493832753477) + +- Have rabbit r1 make a [Deez Nuts joke](https://x.com/didier_lopes/status/1784228313717776505) + +- Use rabbit r1 as a [Not Hotdog app](https://x.com/didier_lopes/status/1784357946920505387) ([Silicon Valley reference](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2575988/)) + +But now onto the serious stuff. Since I was at the Pickup Party where Jesse split the presentation based on the major features of the products, I want to address each of these individually after having time to play with them. + +### Search + +For search, rabbit r1 relies on [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai/). I'm a Perplexity fan myself and at some point I even replaced my default [Arc browser](https://arc.net/) search engine with Perplexity. This only lasted one day because then I realized how many times I just wanted to end up on a landing page or on someone's LinkedIn/X. It made me realize why Google is, well, Google. Regardless, this is something that I do with my phone, and so I don't think it's a strong use case. + +However, if you have a kid that is curious to understand the world. I think a rabbit r1 is well worth it to use it to ask questions that they are curious about, without having the distractions that a phone provides. + +### Vision + +**What is this** - I just don't think this is a strong use case overall. This is not something that you do daily, weekly, or even monthly. Maybe once a year or so. The last time I did it was last year in Mexico to know the name of an animal that was nearby. I went to Google and looked for "Mexico animal that looks like a racoon" and the first answer was Coati which was what I was looking for. If that query didn't work, I would have taken a picture of the animal and then Google search - but that's my second choice because of the effort of doing so. This to say that it's not really a pain point that users will have. + +**Edit spreadsheet** - This is a somewhat interesting use case choice, I wonder if they picked it up because no other device showed being capable of doing this (taking a picture to a handwritten table, asking for a change and emailing the image to your email). Personally, I don't write tables that much anymore on paper, and the ones I do are small enough that if I want to transcribe it takes me seconds to do. It may be a strong use case for certain jobs, but I’m not sure about it, nor the performance it would have on large tables. The example Jesse shared at the event was a 5x3 tabl. + +### Terminal mode + +It’s like using ChatGPT but with a worse interface. The keyboard reminds me of BlackBerry but it’s gimmicky to use - personally, I didn’t like the experience. I would always pick up my phone to use ChatGPT over using the Terminal mode for instance. + ++ +
+ +### Translation + +YES. Having Portuguese parents that don’t speak english, whenever they are with my wife, I need to be the translator. So having a device that allows them to translate in “real-time” both ways is a huge value add. + +Yes, I know that Google already has this feature - but it's shit and if you disagree, you never actually used it. LLMs can understand expression and meaning, in a way that a model like BERT cannot. I actually did this post where I prompted ChatGPT to do exactly this - act as a device that stays in the middle of a conversation translating from one language to another based on who the speaker was (tweet [here](https://x.com/didier_lopes/status/1740049615804846461), it went kind of viral). + +Sure, this could be an app, but I quite like the idea of having a device that just does this. I think that’s because the translation works both ways, so I imagine you passing the device to the other person to press the button when they want to speak. So that way, it feels more like a “common” object whereas your phone is more personal. + +Although I was excited about this, and it was the first thing I tried it failed badly. The CTO of the company [replied](https://x.com/LiaoPeiyuan/status/1783001793573843078) to [my tweet](https://x.com/didier_lopes/status/1783000272278569412) saying that they are working on fixing it. + ++ +
+ + +### Notes + +Yay, another note-taking app. NOT. I’d prefer an integration with the Apple Notes app or Notion, so I don’t need to then go into yet another website and copy-paste those notes to some other place. + ++ +
+ +### Voice Recording + +The voice recording feature is pretty good. If you are a content creator (e.g., writer, youtuber), I think this is very powerful. The way I see it is that rabbit offers way less distractions than your phone, so you could go on a walk and take r1 and just speak with it to brainstorm ideas. Then go to the website and analyze your ideas to transform it into content. + +Personally, when I have ideas like this I just drop a voice note to my wife’s WhatsApp and then mark the message as unread. It’s hacky but it works and I've been doing it for a long time now. We have an inside joke where I start these audios with “Note to self” and she always makes fun of it. + ++ +
+ +## Excited about + +### Developer Ecosystem + +Apple became Apple not because of their revolutionary LCD screen without a keyboard, but because of the developer ecosystem they created. The iPhone became stickier over time, because there were more apps being built on top of it that users could easily tap into. It also allowed Apple to generate revenue from the monetization of these apps. + +I truly hope that this is the direction that Jesse and team want to take. If I were in their shoes, I would prioritize that over any other feature. Just allow developers to create apps (in this case functions) that the LAM can call to do something very specific. + +Instead of having their team working on all these features, create the foundational marketplace that allows developers to do so. Start by only allowing free apps and see what developers are building and what users are utilizing. Then move to allow developers to monetize and take a cut from it. And allow users to decide what apps are enabled within their devices and which ones aren't - show which apps are the most downloaded and used and link it to a user profile. Make it so that the user profile needs to be a rabbit r1 holder to avoid scams.. + +A few examples: Someone building a Pokedex app for animals, you take r1 to the zoo and just take a picture of the animals with it, then you go home and look into your pokedex. Or a Pokedex for travel monuments. Or integrating OpenBB so I could do research on-the-go. + ++ +
+ + +### Native AI-phone + +[Nothing](https://us.nothing.tech/) has one of the best consumer tech brands out there. If the Apple ecosystem wasn't as sticky as it is today, I would buy one. Both Nothing and Rabbit are very unique brands, and I think a partnership between them could be a game-changer. + +I'm imagining a Native AI-phone built on Android with rabbit's LAM. So, in simple terms, it would be like Nothing Phone (2) but it would have an r1 button that you can use to interact with it through voice instead of fingers. The challenge would be combining the LAM from rabbit r1 to all the apps that Nothing Phone (2) provides - but I believe in a future where applications will be built not only thinking about how humans will utilize them but also LLMs - at least [we are doing that at OpenBB](https://github.com/OpenBB-finance/openbb-agents) with the [OpenBB Platform](https://github.com/OpenBB-finance/OpenBBTerminal). +