CES Las Vegas: Pocket assistant uses user apps – 01/12/2024 – Tech

A pocket assistant that uses the user’s applications and solves small tasks without a cell phone, with technology that resembles other virtual assistants, such as Siri and Alexa, is one of the stars of CES 2024, in Las Vegas.

Artificial intelligence is the highlight of this year’s edition of the mega innovation event taking place this week in the United States. And the Rabbit R1 is an example of this.

Rabbit presented the portable, touchscreen artificial intelligence device at the fair, which operates like a walkie-talkie and has camera functionality.

The R1 is announced as a device that does what an app can do – organize a meeting, call a car or change a flight date.

To do this, the user presses a button on the side of the R1, which is the size of a credit card, and says what he needs via the walkie-talkie.

It has an internal operating system, Rabbit OS, and the so-called LAM (Largen Action Model), a system that makes AI run applications.

According to exhibitors, the proprietary operating system eliminates the need to download and use different applications on your smartphone.

The orange device has two microphones, a scroll button, a “push-to-talk” button and a rotating camera.

The small camera is used to scan objects around the device, so it is possible to film food in the refrigerator and ask the R1 to give recipe suggestions, for example.

“Our mission is to create the simplest computer possible, something so intuitive that you don’t need to learn how to use it,” says Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu in the product presentation. “We don’t want the R1 to replace your iPhone, it’s just a different generation of device.”

According to the startup, the data stored on the R1 can be deleted at any time, and the listening mode is not always active, the microphone does not record unless the button on the side is pressed.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday (10), the startup announced that it had sold the first 10,000 units of the device.

“When we started building R1, we said internally that we would be happy if we sold 500 devices on launch day,” writes Rabbit. “In 24 hours, we already beat that by 20 times!” The first batch should start shipping in March.

“I think I’m going to buy one too, it looks cute and I’m curious to see if it really works,” says engineering student Melisa Deng, 22.

The R1 costs US$199 (R$1,025) and is available for pre-order on the company’s official website. After selling out a second batch on Thursday (11), she announced that the third available batch will have a delivery date scheduled for May and June.

The reporter traveled at the invitation of John Deere