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Gautam Hazari

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Rabbit R1 Review

A Gautam Hazari AI column.

Rabbit R1

Rabbit R1 Review

I was looking at the abstract artwork hanging on my wall and was engrossed in a lot of thoughts, the asymmetricity entangled with the symmetricity was forcing me to look for metaphors. 

With my eyes still admiring the artwork, I asked: “Hey, look at the artwork, what do you think?”. 

“Let me see”, I heard, and there was a thoughtful pause.

I thought I could feel some deep thoughts being run through and then I got a response: 

“This image is an abstract and dynamic artistic composition. I see swirling, energetic brushstrokes in shades of yellow, black, and white that create a sense of movement and visual energy. The overall effect is chaotic yet visually captivating, evoking a sense of spontaneity and emotion. While the image does not depict any recognisable objects or figures, the bold use of colour and expressive brushwork give it an evocative, almost mystical quality.”

I thought the pause was justified, in a way. 

Then I asked, “Have a look at it again and can you relate it to Digital Identity?”.

Again after a short pause for reflection, a philosophical response was pronounced: “The blending of different hues and tones suggests the complex layering and intermingling of various aspects that contribute to one’s digital identity. Furthermore, the lack of clear, defined shapes or forms in the artwork could symbolise the ambiguity and fluidity inherent in how individuals construct and present their digital selves, which may not always align neatly with their offline personas”.

I’ll come clean at this point, this was not an interaction with my philosopher friend, at least not a human philosopher friend – it is a conversation I had with my Rabbit R1 device.

Waiting patiently since I ordered it in January this year, after the CES announcement, it finally arrived during the first week of July.  Unboxing the Rabbit R1 was an experience that sets the stage for something truly different, and after a brief charge, I could not wait to switch it on.

When the crisp 2.88-inch display lit up and the Rabbit logo greeted me, and after following the basic setup instructions (at the ‘Rabbithole’ – possibly not the best marketing name for hopes of a simple set up..) the R1 was ready to be introduced to the ‘organic’ and ‘digital’ worlds. 

The Rabbit R1 runs on a 2.3 GHz MediaTek Helio P35 Processor, with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which is not bad for a mid-range device although not that impressive in terms of the computing we are used to in our phones.

It uses a custom OS – the Rabbit OS, based on the AOSP (Android Open Source Project), and a small number of sensors embellish the hardware: gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer and GPS. The list, although basic, can be very useful in identifying the context in its interactions with its human owner.

Interestingly, the Rabbit R1 utilises a LAM – Large Action Model, for performing requested actions, utilising Perplexity for the language processing. In a way, it’s an AI agent in a box.

As part of the setup, using the dubiously named “Rabbithole” portal, a number of external services can be connected for the actions to be performed, like Spotify, Apple Music, Uber, Midjourney etc. 

I was a bit disappointed with the number of services connected, it feels a bit primitive and it seems the option used at the moment is to connect to services with public interfaces/APIs only.

Overall, the experience is somewhat underwhelming, but the Rabbit R1 device should be seen as a statement in the evolution of technology, a marker, and a very important one, too; I see the Rabbit R1 device challenging the status quo:

  • It is challenging the form factor for smartphones; for decades smartphones have one thing in common – they all have screens as the main interaction medium. The Rabbit R1 is challenging with a provocative question: Why do smartphone interactions and inputs have to have just through the screen? 
  • It is challenging the decade of inertia in the user experience of using an app and the statement, “There is an app for everything”. The most intuitive and effective UX is language, or rather, natural language; we humans have used language for many thousands of years. The Rabbit R1 rides on the recent revolution in Large Language Models and the Large Action Models and uses language as the UX, powered by Perplexity and a custom LAM. And yes, in a multimodal way – audio, visual and text.
  • It is challenging the verb associated with smartphones for interactions – instead of ‘typing’, or indeed ‘Googling’, it uses talking. Talking in natural language. Perhaps we might be, ‘rabbiting’…

I’ve written before about the 3 As in a previous column. The Rabbit R1 is a platform on which to converge the 3 As in our current digital world – Apps, APIs and AI. 

Will this trigger the next phase of smartphone evolution? 

Is this going to be the catalyst for the personal AI revolution? 

I’ve always said let us humanise every technology we build. 

It is still early to settle on a conclusion; though make no mistake, the Rabbit R1 is an indication of the incoming wave of disruptions that will challenge the inertia of the past decade.   

Connect with Gautam Hazari on LinkedIn to stay updated on his latest insights and contributions to the field of digital identity and technology and AI beyond artificial.