Rabbit R1 review: nothing to see here

“You’re holding a taco.”

My Rabbit R1 told maine that nan different day. I was sitting astatine a array astatine a cafe connected nan National Mall successful Washington, DC, and I had conscionable picked up this $199 orangish rectangle of a gadget and pointed it astatine nan nutrient successful my hand. With unwavering, absolute confidence, nan R1 told maine it was a taco. 

It was a Dorito. A Cool Ranch Dorito, to beryllium specific. I’d shown nan R1 nan container conscionable a fewer seconds earlier and asked astir nan calories. (The R1 sewage that spot right.) I moved nan spot astir and tried again — still taco. I could not person this AI-powered gadget, theoretically astatine nan cutting separator of a technological revolution, that I was holding a chip.

Over and complete successful my testing of nan R1, I’ve tally into moments for illustration nan taco encounter, wherever nan full point conscionable feels broken. It misidentified a reddish canine artifact arsenic a accent ball, past arsenic a tomato, past arsenic a reddish doorbell capsicum that it assured maine is wholly safe to eat. I’d commencement playing a opus connected nan R1, and past nan instrumentality would extremity responding but support playing truthful that I couldn’t moreover region it aliases move nan measurement down.

For a while, nan R1 couldn’t moreover show nan clip aliases nan weather. Rabbit yet fixed that pinch a package update connected Tuesday, and nan institution promised galore much updates to travel — though now, alternatively of nan upwind being incorrect by thousands of miles, it gives maine nan upwind from astir 15 miles away. I conjecture that counts for something.

Ever since the R1 debuted astatine CES, pinch a keynote filled pinch large promises and awesome demos, this instrumentality has been sold arsenic a super-clever, ultra-helpful AI assistant. Rather than conscionable reply ChatGPT-style questions, it was expected to do conscionable astir everything your telephone tin do, only faster. A fewer months later, this instrumentality connected my table bears nary resemblance to nan 1 we were told about, that much than 100,000 group preordered based connected promises and demos. 

After reviewing nan Humane AI Pin and uncovering it woefully incapable to execute its ambition, I was excited astir nan R1. It’s cheaper, much whimsical, and little ambitious. After utilizing nan R1, I consciousness for illustration Humane astatine slightest deserves in installments for trying. The R1 is underwhelming, underpowered, and undercooked. It can’t do overmuch of anything. It doesn’t moreover cognize what a taco looks like.

On nan LAM

The astir intriguing tech successful nan R1 is what Rabbit calls nan “Large Action Model,” aliases LAM. Where a ample connection model, aliases LLM, is each astir analyzing and creating text, nan LAM is expected to beryllium astir doing stuff. The exemplary learns really an app useful successful bid to beryllium capable to navigate it connected your behalf. In a LAM-powered world, you’d usage Photoshop conscionable by saying “remove that woman from nan background” aliases make a spreadsheet by telling your instrumentality to propulsion nan past six quarters of net from nan investor website.

There is fundamentally nary grounds of a LAM astatine activity successful nan R1. The instrumentality only presently connects to 4 apps: Uber, DoorDash, Midjourney, and Spotify. You link to them by opening up Rabbit’s web app, called Rabbithole, and logging successful to each work individually. When you spell to do so, Rabbit opens up a virtual browser wrong nan app and logs you successful straight — you’re not logging successful to a work provided by DoorDash but alternatively virtually successful to DoorDash’s website while Rabbit snoops connected nan process. Rabbit says it protects your credentials, but nan process conscionable feels icky and insecure. 

I logged successful to them each anyway, for journalism. Except for Midjourney, which I ne'er managed to get into because I couldn’t get past nan CAPTCHA systems that evidently thought I was a bot. The relationship doesn’t do overmuch anyway: nan R1 won’t show you nan images aliases moreover nonstop them to you. It’s conscionable typing an image punctual and pressing enter.

I’d emotion to show you really Uber and DoorDash activity amended erstwhile you’re logged in, but I ne'er sewage either 1 to successfully do anything. Every clip I pressed that broadside fastener connected nan R1 — which activates nan microphone — and asked it to bid food, it spat backmost a informing astir really “DoorDash whitethorn return a while to load connected RabbitOS” and then, a 2nd later, told maine location was an rumor and to effort again. (If you person to see that disclaimer, you astir apt haven’t vanished your product.) Same point for Uber — though I was occasionally capable to astatine slightest get to nan constituent wherever I said my starting and ending addresses loudly and successful afloat earlier it failed. So far, Rabbit has gotten maine zero rides and zero meals. 

Spotify was nan integration I was astir willing in. I’ve utilized Spotify everlastingly and was eager to effort a dedicated instrumentality for listening to euphony and podcasts. I connected my Bluetooth headphones and dove in, but nan Spotify relationship is truthful hilariously inept that I gave up almost immediately. If I inquire for circumstantial songs aliases to conscionable play songs by an artist, it mostly succeeds — though I do often get lullaby instrumental versions, covers, aliases different weirdness. When I say, “Play my Discover Weekly playlist,” it plays “Can You Discover?” by Discovery, which is apparently a opus and set that exists but is decidedly not what I’m looking for. When I inquire for nan Armchair Expert podcast, it plays “How Far I’ll Go” from nan Moana soundtrack. Sometimes it plays a opus called “Armchair Expert,” by nan creator Voltorb. 

Not only is this incorrect — it’s really dumber than I expected. If you spell to Spotify and hunt “Discover Weekly” aliases “Armchair Expert,” nan correct results show up first. So moreover if all Rabbit was doing was searching nan app and clicking play for maine — which is wholly imaginable without AI and useful awesome done nan off-the-shelf automation package Rabbit is utilizing for portion of nan process  — it should still onshore connected nan correct thing. The R1 mostly whiffs.

About a 3rd of nan time, I’ll inquire nan R1 to play something, it’ll popular up pinch a cheery confirmation — ”Getting nan euphony going now!” — and past thing will happen. This happened successful my testing crossed each of nan R1’s features and reminded maine a batch of nan Humane AI Pin. You opportunity something, and it thinks, thinks, thinks, and fails. No logic given. No sound letting you know. Just backmost to nan bouncing logo homescreen arsenic if everything’s A-okay. 

The agelong and short of it is this: each nan coolest, astir ambitious, astir interesting, and differentiating things astir nan R1 don’t work. They mostly don’t moreover exist. When I first sewage a demo of nan instrumentality astatine CES, laminitis and CEO Jesse Lyu blamed nan Wi-Fi for nan truth that his R1 couldn’t do astir of nan things he’d conscionable said it could do. Now I deliberation nan Wi-Fi mightiness person been fine.

Hot mic

Without nan LAM, what you’re near pinch successful nan R1 is simply a sound adjunct successful a box. The smartest point Rabbit did pinch nan R1 was activity pinch Perplexity, nan AI hunt engine, truthful that nan R1 tin present much aliases little real-time accusation astir news, sports scores, and more. If you position nan R1 arsenic a dedicated Perplexity machine, it’s not bad! Though Perplexity is still incorrect a lot. When I asked whether nan Celtics were playing 1 night, nan R1 said no, nan adjacent crippled isn’t until April 29th — which was true, isolated from that it was already nan evening of April 29th and nan crippled was good underway. Like pinch Humane, Rabbit is making a stake connected AI systems each nan measurement down, and until each those systems get better, nary of them will activity very well.

For basal things, nan kinds of trivia and accusation you’d inquire ChatGPT, nan R1 does arsenic good arsenic thing other — which is to say, not that well. Sometimes it’s right, and sometimes it’s wrong. Sometimes it’s accelerated — at its best, it’s noticeably faster than nan AI Pin — but sometimes it’s slow, aliases it conscionable fails entirely. It’s adjuvant that nan R1 has some a speaker and a screen, truthful you tin perceive to immoderate responses and spot others, and I liked being capable to opportunity “save that arsenic a note” aft a peculiarly agelong diatribe and person nan full point dumped into nan Rabbithole. There’s a useful note-taking and investigation instrumentality location wrong nan R1, I suspect. 

To that point, actually: my azygous favourite characteristic of nan R1 is its sound recorder. You conscionable property nan fastener and say, “Start nan sound recorder,” and it records your audio, summarizes it pinch AI, and dumps it into nan Rabbithole. $200 is beautiful steep for a sound recorder, but nan R1’s mic is great, and I’ve been utilizing it a bunch to grounds to-do lists, diary entries, and nan like.

The astir enjoyable clip I spent pinch nan R1 was moving astir nan National Mall successful Washington, DC, pointing nan R1’s camera astatine a bunch of landmarks and asking it for accusation via nan Vision feature. It did beautiful good knowing which ample president was which, erstwhile memorials were built, that benignant of thing. You could almost usage it arsenic an AI circuit guide. But if you’re pointing nan camera astatine thing different than a globally known, perpetually photographed structure, nan results are each complete nan place. Sometimes, I would clasp up a tin of beer, and it would show maine it was Bud Light; different times, it would show maine it’s conscionable a colorful can. If I held up a tin of shaving cream, it identified it correctly; if I covered nan Barbasol logo, it identified it arsenic deodorant aliases “sensitive tegument spray,” immoderate that is. It could ne'er show maine really overmuch things costs and whether they had bully reviews aliases thief maine bargain them. Sometimes, it became really, really convinced my Dorito was a taco.

For nan first fewer days of my testing, nan artillery life was genuinely disastrous. I’d termination nan point successful an hr of use, and it would spell from afloat to dormant successful six hours of sitting untouched connected my desk. This week’s update improved nan standby artillery life substantially, but I tin still fundamentally watch nan numbers tick down arsenic I play euphony aliases inquire questions. This’ll dice measurement earlier your telephone does. 

A imagination successful orange

Just for fun, let’s ratchet nan R1’s ambitions each nan measurement down. Past “The Future of Computing,” past “Cool Device for ChatGPT,” and moreover past “Useful For Any Purpose At All.” It’s not moreover a gadget anymore, conscionable a $200 table ornament slash fidget toy. In that light, location is thing decidedly different — and almost delightful — astir nan R1. A rectangle 3 inches gangly and wide by a half-inch deep, its integrative assemblage feels soft and bully successful my hand. The orangish colour is large and bold and stands retired successful nan oversea of achromatic and achromatic gadgets. The plasticky lawsuit picks up fingerprints easily, but I really for illustration nan measurement it looks.

I besides for illustration nan operation of features here. The press-to-talk fastener is simply a bully thing, giving you a beingness measurement to cognize erstwhile it’s listening. The surface / speaker combo is nan correct 1 because sometimes I want to perceive nan somesthesia and, different times, I want to spot nan forecast. I moreover for illustration that nan R1 has a scroll wheel, which is utterly superfluous but nosy to messiness astir with.

As I’ve been testing nan R1, I’ve been trying to determine whether Humane’s attack aliases Rabbit’s has a amended chance arsenic AI improves. (Right now, it’s easy: don’t bargain either one.) In nan adjacent term, I’d astir apt stake connected Rabbit — Humane’s wearable and screen-free attack is truthful overmuch much ambitious, and solving its thermal issues and interface challenges will beryllium tricky. Rabbit is truthful overmuch simpler an thought that it ought to beryllium simpler to improve. 

But wherever Humane is trying to build an wholly caller class and is building capable features to possibly really 1 time beryllium a superior device, Rabbit is connected an inevitable collision people pinch your smartphone. You know, nan other handheld instrumentality successful your pouch that is practically guaranteed to get a elephantine infusion of AI this year? The AI Pin is simply a wearable trying to support your hands retired of your pockets and your eyes disconnected a screen. The R1 is conscionable a worse and little functional type of your smartphone — as immoderate folks person discovered, nan instrumentality is fundamentally conscionable an Android telephone pinch a civilization launcher and only 1 app, and there’s thing astir nan instrumentality itself that makes it worthy grabbing complete your phone.

Lyu and nan Rabbit squad person been saying since nan opening that this is only nan very opening of nan Rabbit travel and that they cognize there’s a batch of activity near to do some for nan R1 and for nan AI manufacture arsenic a whole. They’ve besides been saying that nan only measurement for things to get amended is for group to usage nan products, which makes nan R1 sound for illustration an intentional bait-and-switch to get thousands of group to salary money to beta-test a product. That feels cruel. And $199 for this point feels for illustration a discarded of money.

AI is moving fast, truthful possibly successful six months, each these gadgets will beryllium awesome and I’ll show you to spell bargain them. But I’m quickly moving retired of dream for that and for nan full thought of dedicated AI hardware. I fishy we’re apt to spot a slew of caller ideas astir really to interact pinch nan AI on your phone, whether it’s headphones pinch amended microphones aliases smartwatches that tin show you nan readout from ChatGPT. The Meta Smart Glasses are doing a really bully occupation of extending your smartphone’s capabilities pinch caller inputs and outputs, and I dream we spot much devices for illustration that. But until nan hardware, software, and AI each get amended and much differentiated, I conscionable don’t deliberation we’re getting amended than smartphones. The AI gadget gyration mightiness not guidelines a chance. The Rabbit R1 judge doesn’t.

Photography by David Pierce / The Verge