«First there were AI chatbots. AI assistants can now order Ubers and book vacations«
The popular news and general content website npr.org through its editor and Los Angeles correspondent Bobby Allyn has written a short article where he reviews the experience he has had and his opinions of the Rabbit R1 and how the world of AI views itself from now on.
I leave you the translated article with all credit to npr.org for its original work.
ChatGPT can give you ideas for your trips, but it will not book your flight to Cancun. Now, artificial intelligence is here to help us cross items off our to-do lists. A group of tech startups are developing products that use AI to complete tasks in the real world.
Silicon Valley observers see this new crop of “AI agents” as the next phase of the generative AI “craze” that took hold with the launch of chatbots and image generators —and I add, from video this last week—.
Last year, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, gave a nod to the future of AI task helpers at the company's developer conference.
"Eventually, you will just ask a computer for what you need, and it will do all these tasks for you"Altman said.
Like a walkie-talkie, but with an animated rabbit head.
One of the most publicized companies that does this is called Rabbit. He has developed a device called Rabbit R1. Chinese entrepreneur Jesse Lyu launched it at this year's CES, the annual technology fair, in Las Vegas.
It's a bright orange device, about half the size of an iPhone. It has a button on the side that you press and talk like on a walkie-talkie. In response to a request, an AI-powered rabbit head appears and attempts to fulfill any task you ask.
Chatbots like ChatGPT are based on a technology known as LLM, or Large Language Model, and Rabbit says it uses both that system and a new type of AI called a “large action model” or LAM. In basic terms, it learns how people use websites and apps and imitates these actions after a voice command.
Not only will it play a song on Spotify or start streaming a video on YouTube, which Siri and other voice assistants can already do, but Rabbit will order DoorDash for you, call an Uber, book your family's vacation. And it makes suggestions after learning the user's tastes and preferences.
Storing potentially dozens or hundreds of a person's passwords raises immediate questions about privacy. But Rabbit claims that it stores user credentials in a way that makes it impossible for the company, or anyone else, to access anyone's personal information.. The company says it will not sell or share user data with third parties "without your formal and explicit permission."
The company, which says that more than 80,000 people have reserved the Rabbit R1, will begin shipping the devices in the coming months."This is the first time that AI exists in a hardware format"said Ashley Bao, a Rabbit spokeswoman at the company's headquarters in Santa Monica, California.
«I think we have all been waiting for this moment. We have had our Alexa. We have had our smart speakers. But none of them can complete tasks from start to finish and turn words into actions for you..
Do things with less time on the phone?
The excitement in Silicon Valley over AI agents is fueling an increasingly crowded field of devices and services. Google and Microsoft are racing to develop products that leverage AI to automate heavy lifting.
Arc web browser is building a tool that uses an AI agent to browse the web for you. Another startup, called Humane, has developed a wearable AI pin that projects a screen image onto a user's palm. It is supposed to assist with daily tasks and also makes people pick up their phones less frequently.
Similarly, Rabbit claims that its device will allow people to do things without opening apps (you log into all your various apps in a Rabbit web portal, so it uses your credentials to do things on your behalf).
To work, the Rabbit R1 needs to be connected to Wi-Fi, but there's also a SIM card slot, in case people want to purchase a separate data plan just for the device.
When asked why anyone would want to carry a separate device just to do something your smartphone could do in 30 seconds, Rabbit spokesperson Ryan Fenwick argued that Using apps to place orders and requests all day takes more time than we could imagine.
"We are looking at the entire process, from start to finish, to automate as much as possible and make these complex actions much faster and much more intuitive than is currently possible with multiple apps on a smartphone."Fenwick said.
Is this device necessary?
The introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022 sparked a rush for companies across many industries trying to ride the latest wave of the tech industry. That enthusiasm for chatbots is about to transfer to the world of devicessaid Duane Forrester, an analyst at the firm Yext.
"In the beginning, with the deployment of AI, each product or service attached the letters "A" and "I" to whatever its product or service was.Forrester said. "I think we're going to end up seeing a version of that with hardware as well.".
Forrester said an AI walkie-talkie could quickly become obsolete as companies like Apple and Google make their voice assistants smarter with the latest AI innovations.
"You don't need a different piece of hardware to achieve this," he said. "What you need is this level of intelligence and utility in our current smartphones, and we will eventually get there."
AI Agents Raise Concerns About Runaway AI
Researchers are concerned about where such technology could eventually go wrong.
The AI assistant buying the wrong non-refundable flight, for example, or sending a food order to someone else's house are among the potential problems that analysts have mentioned.
A 2023 paper from the Center for AI Safety warned against AI agents running amok. He said that if an AI agent is given an “open-ended goal”—say, maximizing a person's stock market profits—without telling it how to achieve that goal, it could go very wrong.
“We risk losing control over AIs as they become more capable. AIs could optimize flawed targets, deviate from their original goals, seek power, resist shutdown, and engage in deception. "We suggest that AIs should not be deployed in high-risk environments, such as autonomously pursuing open objectives or monitoring critical infrastructure, unless they are proven safe.", according to a summary of the article.
At Rabbit's Santa Monica office, Rabbit R1 creative director Anthony Gargasz presents the device as a respite from social media. Use it to make a doctor's appointment or book a hotel without being stuck in an app feed for hours.
"There is absolutely no doomscrolling on the Rabbit R1"Gargasz said. "The scroll wheel is for intentional interaction."
Her colleague Ashley Bao added that the whole point of the device is to "get things done efficiently." But he acknowledged there's also a beauty factor, comparing it to the keychain-sized electronic pets that were popular in the 1990s.
«It's like a Tamagotchi but with AI", said.
