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Had my Rabbit for a day-- and here are my thoughts
🕑 Added 2024-05-04 03:17:45 +0000 UTCMy thoughts on the Rabbit R1 and the cool kids reviewing it
There's a trend among the influencers to critique AI gadgets harshly—it's become the latest fad. These influencers are this era's version of movie critics, presenting a skewed view of reality with a narrow understanding of history. They are captivated by brand names, much like their critic predecessors, impressed by big names and enthralling narratives, and they often move in influential social circles.
Take for instance MKBHD who asks us to believe he can review a $200 device without bias even though he just finished giving a fantastic accounting of his own $300,000 Porsche supercar while admitting it’s not really that fast or technical– not even a dashcam.
Yes, brand names like Porsche and Apple always get great reviews. MKBHD loved the Apple Vision Pro– which now sits on shelves around the world as there’s no compelling use case to have one while innovative products like the Rabbit R1 are dismissed as subpar or "dog water."
These reviewers lack perspective on continuous build or iterative development—a common software approach that is increasingly applied to hardware, enhancing products continually based on user feedback, as seen with companies like Tesla. And you can be sure all robots in the future will use this same methodology as well.
MKBHD claims the Rabbit R1’s battery is poor and only works for 4 hours at best. Yesterday an update was installed and the battery lasted all day today. He talks about how you need two hands to operate it and within minutes a R1 user posted a video showing how it’s supposed to be done with one hand.
It's time to shift our attention from these high-profile reviewers to actual users who provide practical, hands-on evaluations with real world use cases. The Rabbit R1 represents a platform for continuous improvement, not suited for everyone, certainly not for every reviewer.
Consider the Rabbit R1 as a "threshold device." Let me explain.
The idea being that there is a certain threshold of pain people are not willing to endure to perform a task. For instance, if you have to get out of your car, open a garage door, get back in your car, drive into the garage, get out of the car, and close the garage door. There is a really good chance you're going to quit parking your car in the garage. But, a garage door opener is a "threshold device" and with it you'll park your car in the garage everyday because it's a one button task.
The Rabbit is the same thing. You're watching a movie and you see an actor and you want to know his name and if he's still alive and what else he's been in you can do it within a few seconds pointing the Rabbit at the TV.
Or... you can open your smartphone, open a browser, type the name of the movie (if you can find it) and click the cast link, and then click through to the Wikipedia entry and search for information you’re after. At some point it's just too much work and you won't do it.
You can’t turn the R1 into an App on the App store. Not only would Apple not allow it, you’re defeating the whole purpose of a “threshold device.”
The first killer app for the R1 will probably be dictation (which it already allows for) with full transcribing and more importantly “themed summaries.” This is a game changer for a product like Rabbit. I currently use a $200 product called AudioPen on my desktop to do this in my browser. With this feature I can speak in my own rambling train of thought about something I am thinking and when done I can get a more organized document that can sound casual, sophisticated, serious, or even funny. Huge win for concepting, storyboarding, documentation, letters, white papers even scripting YouTube videos.
Just imagine driving down the road speaking stream of consciousness to your Rabbit and it records, organizes, and provides you different versions of the final draft. This is way cool.
And… let’s not forget how magical this device is! Can you imagine even two years ago being able to actually have a conversation with an AI in a little orange box? And, you can point the camera at documents and objects and have them explained to you.* You can ask it to take notes for you. You can render images (like the ones in this post) and have food brought to your home. All of that exists now!
And how cool is this product for kids and grandparents? They can now interface with AI without hassle.
Having witnessed technological evolution from the Newton and Palm Pilot to today's smartphones, I see a pattern. Early criticisms often miss the future impact of innovative technologies. Let’s not dismiss the Rabbit R1 prematurely. Understanding the value of "threshold devices" and “continuous development” might just show us what this product can truly offer.
* that is unless you can find some obscure plant like MKBHD did to prove it doesn’t recognize it– not that any other person he or I know would. And not to mention SIRI has been making mistakes for years but never got called “dog-water” because of it.
Comments
Jon White
Love this perspective. I enjoy reading different views on things...you always learn something.
