Pour
one
out
for
the
Rabbit
R1.
Only
5,000
people
of
the
100,000
who
bought
the
orange
AI
gadget
are
still
using
it
daily,
five
months
after
it
launched.
That’s
straight
from
the
mouth
of
Rabbit
founder
Jesse
Lyu,
who
gave
the
number
to
Fast
Company
while
explaining
that
the
device
had
to
launch
before
it
was
ready
in
order
to
beat
big
tech
companies
to
the
punch.
That’s
a
big
fall
from
the
moment
AI
gadgets
were
having
earlier
this
year.
There
was
tremendous
hype
around
the
R1
after
its
CES
debut,
and
an
air
of
mystery
surrounded
Humane’s
AI
Pin
before
its
reveal.
Both
shipped
without
any
of
the
futuristic
grandeur
that
was
promised.
As
The
Verge’s
David
Pierce
wrote
in
his
review
of
the
R1,
“the
whole
thing
just
feels
broken.”
Maybe
that’s
why
almost
nobody
is
using
the
R1
or
why,
last
month,
Humane
was
taking
back
more
AI
Pins
than
it
was
selling.
We’ve
written
at
length
about
whether
standalone
AI
gadgets
have
an
ideal
form
or
if
their
future
is
just
phones.
The
AI
features
we’re
seeing
on
smartphones
are
already
good
enough
that
even
when
an
AI
gadget
does
what
its
creators
say
it
will,
it
feels
doomed.
Still,
Meta’s
Ray-Ban
glasses
make
a
good
case
for
at
least
one
type
of
standalone,
AI-forward
device.
And
who
knows,
maybe
Jony
Ive’s
OpenAI
device
will,
too.
Rabbit’s
do-everything-for-you
“large
action
model”
update,
which
would
ostensibly
let
it
log
in
to
websites
and
do
things
like
order
plane
tickets
or
dinner
for
you
when
you
ask,
is
apparently
coming
out
on
October
1st.
Will
it
inspire
people
to
dust
off
their
Rabbit
R1s
and
carry
one
more
thing
in
their
pockets,
just
for
AI?
Given
that
Apple
and
Google
are
both
promising
local
AI
that
knows
what’s
on
your
screen
and
can
do
things
for
you
across
multiple
apps...
well,
that
feels
unlikely.
(Originally posted by Wes Davis)
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