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The Rabbit R1 chronicles.
Chapter 1: Couldn’t it have just been an app?
Though I’m sometimes an early adopter, I shunned AI. But Jesse Lyu did a keynote on Rabbit R1 and I bought one before he stopped talking. Because it’s cute? Or useful? Actually, I got in because the Rabbit and its Large Action Model are a gravitational shift. Rabbit went down a hole that the industry didn’t realize was there and has AI and smartphone companies panicking right now and rapidly reacting to adopt a similar model.
The LAM shifts AI from mostly telling you an answer to actually doing a task that you want it to. And Rabbit’s interface is a shift away from the need for apps. Connecting to services directly (without apps) will likely change how we do things with our other devices as well.
But couldn’t it have just been an app? I’ve heard that a lot and the answer is a definitive no. And for a few reasons:
- Rabbit is not OS restricted. Rabbit essentially does things that can already be done by your phone. (Siri can call someone for you. Alexa can re-order your favorite peanut butter.) But these actions are limited to what the OS allows. By contrast, Rabbit doesn’t have these limitations and can do anything you-the-human can do through an existing web portal. Think about Rabbit doing all the things you do or can do through your web browser and you realize just how big that is.
- Rabbit is not API restricted. There are already apps like IFTTT and Zapier that can do some of the tasks Rabbit can do, but they’re dependent on their own APIs communicating with other APIs. And often services have not implemented the APIs to work with these apps. By simply showing Rabbit how you do something in your browser, those limited APIs are bypassed.
- Rabbit is not likely to be protocol restricted. It’s not for sure at this point, but it’s likely that Rabbit can connect with protocols beyond HTTP and HTTPS, like FTP, TCP, TLS and UDP and all those other netcronyms. So Rabbit likely won’t have these channel restrictions that OSs, apps or mobile browsers can have.
- It’s also about packaging and brand identity. Apps are just not cool. A new piece of orange appless hardware is. It feels somewhat retro that we’re steping back from apps and returning to a dedicated device. But since Rabbit can do more than an a bunch of apps can and does it directly with services, it’s Software As A Service, but without the limitations of software. If Rabbit had been an app, it wouldn’t have all the powers and would’ve been just another AI app.
Since Rabbit R1 has not been released yet, there still are a lot of if’s. Ironically I’m expecting my Rabbit to arrive just after Easter.
Read Chapter 2: Cheating, stinking, lying LLMs.
Check out the entire Chronicles.
I have no affiliation with Rabbit Inc. I’m just an early adopter. If you want to support this journey into the Rabbit, buying me a coffee below helps keep the articles coming.
