7 Days with Rabbit R1: 7 Things It Does Terribly – and 7 Things It Does Well

It’s been a week since I picked up the Rabbit R1, an AI pocket companion with a noticeably loud orange body. I’m not ready to give a full review yet, but I would like to give you an overview of my experience so far.

While the Rabbit R1 has its advantages and benefits, it also has its quirks and shortcomings.

It’s clear that Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu rushed this device to market. I understand it though. If I were in his shoes, I too would jump out of my skin and demonstrate its LAM (Large Action Model), which makes it a shinier AI assistant than ChatGPT. But as the old saying goes: all that glitters is not gold.

Without getting to The LAM has penetrated deeply and allows Rabbit R1 to intervene do things in your name. For example, it can supposedly – ​​emphasis on allegedly – Order DoorDash for you, using nothing but your natural language voice. Something ChatGPT and its ilk cannot do.

But if the thought of an AI running errands for you, especially when it involves your money, sends shivers down your spine, your unease may be justified.

Rabbit R1: 7 Things It Does Terribly

When Lyu bragged that the R1 could order DoorDash on behalf of users, I was skeptical but excited to try out the feature.

I have tried to order DoorDash using the Rabbit R1 every day since I received it on April 23rd, but unfortunately I have had no success.

1. Ordering from DoorDash is not the best experience

At first, Rabbit R1 didn’t even populate the DoorDash interface, telling me it’s currently unavailable.

However, after removing and reactivating my DoorDash account from Rabbit Hole (a companion browser site that also lets you connect Uber, Midjourney, and Spotify), I got a little further along with submitting my order – but not much.

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Even after I finally accessed the interface, scrolled through my options, and made my choice (e.g. Chipotle), I received an error message. To be honest, the wait was so slow that I could probably order Chipotle quicker on my phone.

Among users with a slightly better experience, some expressed frustration with this I see a limited menu while others reported that the Rabbit R1 paid the courier the highest tip without asking first.

2. Limited “natural language” processing.

The Rabbit R1 needs clearly defined requires some tasks to work.

For example, if I said, “Record me as I speak,” the Rabbit R1 would not “understand” that I want it to record me. Instead, it saves a note – something I didn’t ask it to do – and uploads it to the Rabbit Hole.

To get Rabbit R1 to start recording, I would specifically have to say “Start a recording session.”

Here is another example. Of course, if you want to play some games with Rabbit R1, you’ll want to say, “Play a game with me.” Unfortunately, with this request, Rabbit assumes that I want a song from the Spotify catalog to play. Instead, I need to use the words “Let’s play a game” so that my request is fully understood.

3. Lack of animations to make it clear that it is “thinking”.

Countless times when using the Vision feature (the camera feature that allows things to be identified and described), I experienced a lengthy pause between Rabbit R1’s responses, making me think it had finished its response – only to encounter this that another spoke about five seconds later.

I didn’t realize that Rabbit hadn’t finished speaking because there was no animation to indicate that I should wait for a full answer. For example, a jumping animation with three dots would be enough to let me know that there’s more to come.

4. Time is not his strength

I haven’t been able to set my Rabbit R1 to my local time yet.

Destructible speed of light

So I couldn’t set up an alarm with it. Hell, I can’t even set timers on this device. Fortunately, Rabbit said it is aware of these issues and A solution is on the way.

5. Inconsistent Spotify performance

The Rabbit R1 was a bit flawed for me. To give you an idea, the Rabbit R1 has a cool Spotify UI that displays an album cover and an orange bar around the album indicating that the song is playing.

When I ask it to play a song and the Rabbit R1 is working properly, the orange bar runs around the album cover as the melody blares from the lower-end speakers. However, sometimes I see the orange bar progressing – with no sound. This happens to me far too often for it to be just a one-off misfortune.

6. Energy efficiency

If I use Rabbit R1 just to leverage Perplexity, the LLM that powers it, for everyday questions and basic prompts, I can get some variety out of Rabbit R1 for a day.

However, when using the Vision function and Spotify playback, the Rabbit R1 wears out pretty quickly and only lasts for several hours. However, note that this is another issue that Rabbit says it will fix in an upcoming update.

7. Handwriting to Digital Format

You have to admit, it’s pretty cool to take a photo of my handwritten diagram and email me a digitized version of it.

However, the Rabbit R1 didn’t seem to get this transfer from handwriting to digital format quite right. Is my handwriting The bad?

Rabbit R1: 7 things it does well

During my seven days of testing the Rabbit R1, a few things stood out does Get it right, especially the vision function.

1. Suggest recipe ideas based on the ingredients it “sees.”

I admit that it’s pretty cool that I can point the Rabbit R1 at a range of ingredients and have it tell me what to cook with what I have on hand.

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As someone who’s (ironically) trying to kick their addiction to UberEats and DoorDash, it’s helpful when Rabbit R1 gives me recipe recommendations based on what it sees in my fridge.

2. Rich visual descriptions

I was also impressed by the rich, detailed descriptions that the Rabbit R1 provides, whether it’s describing a person in front of me or a living object.

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The Rabbit R1 could potentially be useful for someone with visual impairment.

3. Striking, nostalgic design

This bright orange device will definitely be a conversation starter wherever you take it.

With the bobbing bunny on the screen, millennials like me are transported back to the 90s. We were obsessed with pocket toys and digital pets.

4. Spanish and French translation

I was only able to test the Rabbit R1’s Spanish-English and French-English capabilities, and when I used it with friends and family in the native language, there were no problems translating from one language to another.

However, keep in mind that you have to hold down the side button whenever someone starts talking, which can be tiring. Sometimes it happened that I canceled the translation because I either held down the side button too late or released it too early.

5. Games (and even DnD)

There are games you can play with the Rabbit R1 including 20 questions, word associations and quizzes.

None of them are compelling enough to be addictive, but they do give you a way to pass the time. I’ve even seen some colleagues claim that they’ve also played Dungeons and Dragons with Rabbit R1, which I believe since the AI ​​was pretty good at co-creating a fantastical fairy tale with me one night.

Apart from that, the Rabbit R1 could be a good gift for children between five and eight years old.

6. Summarize web pages

Another Vision feature that deserves some praise is the fact that the Rabbit R1 can “see” a webpage and summarize it on the fly.

This can be helpful in those moments when you don’t feel like reading long articles – and just want “CliffNotes”.

7. Note taking and voice recording

Although you have to use certain phrases to prompt Rabbit R1 to take notes and start a voice recording, I had no problems with this.

The former feature allows me to ask Rabbit R1 to save notes for me so I can access them in the Rabbit Hole. This comes in handy when you don’t want to forget something – this bright orange device will quickly immortalize your thoughts.

You can also record audio, which Rabbit R1 can summarize. These clips are also accessible via the Rabbit Hole.

Final thoughts

Before I properly review the Rabbit R1, I want to see if the next major update, which is supposed to fix battery life and the local time issue, will change my current perception of it. So far, this device is as frustrating as it is fascinating – and there are as many drawbacks as there are benefits.

In the meantime, I thought about the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, another wearable device that claims to push the envelope with AI. Once I get through the Rabbit R1 review, I think it’s time for a duel between the orange box and Meta’s glasses.

subjects
Artificial intelligence