AI gadgets are the latest technology craze, but are they worth it?
Unless you've been hiding in a cave for the last two years, the words Artificial Intelligence are more than likely familiar to you. And not only do they sound familiar to you, but at this point you may be tired of hearing it everywhere, since it seems to be the trendy topic even in areas outside of technology like Meta's sunglasses.
And since in 2022 OpenAI burst into the mainstream with ChatGPT and its great language model, the world went crazy. Well, maybe not everyone, but yes a large part of the technological, communication and marketing sectors. It seemed like everything was going to change from one day to the next.
New technology
We were amazed at the capabilities of this new technology—more than new, novel—and we contemplated how responded coherently, was able to organize all the information he had available and that at first, although with difficulty, he could develop more or less long texts.
But not everything was like that. If we talk about Artificial Intelligences that the general public could use, the possibilities grew almost exponentially. Suddenly dozens of new options began to emerge, all labeled “Artificial intelligence«.
In just two years we have gone from a language model that could help you with a text to create music with SUNO and video with SORA without having any knowledge on the subject. Art was democratized, dividing the general public and professionals.
Little by little, websites, apps and resources are appearing that promote Artificial Intelligence – with varying degrees of success – and try to exploit it. Some are specialized in a specific task and others are a combination of different models with different uses.
The era of AI is beginning to establish itself, opening the circle more and more.
And here and just a few months ago is where a new branch opens within the artificial intelligence ecosystem: AI Gadgets or in Spanish, devices with AI. We are going to stop using our cell phones or computers —at least for now— and let other devices help us with our tasks.
What are AI Gadgets
If AI can help me with some daily tasks, why not use a specific device to control it? It sounds like an interesting and convenient question. And it is precisely there where the "founders" of this new world encounter one of the biggest problems; mobile phones, computers and their form factor are already there.
It is more than likely that you are reading these lines from a mobile phone. Perhaps a laptop or a tablet. We have these technologies completely integrated into our daily lives. We don't leave home without our smartphone or we can't imagine a day without checking our email on our computer... We can't live without them.
But smartphones, tablets and laptops or desktops have a drawback: The Apps and that is precisely the weakness that these AI gadgets want to take advantage of so that our way of using technology changes once and for all, or at least, we are able to be more productive.
Let's give some examples
Let's think for example of the Rabbit r1. I have a question that I want to solve, something simple like «What is the city in the world most visited by tourists per year?«. On a cell phone I have to take it out of my pocket, unlock it, move between the screens until I find my favorite consultation app, write or say what I want and sift through the results.
After all, Google's answers may differ depending on who writes them, you have to read very long articles because of SEOs' desire to position and after all you will still have doubts about whether what you have read corresponds to any type of specific interest on the part of the author.
Now grab the Rabbit r1 —or the Humane AI Pin waves Rayban-Meta— and look for the same thing. Take your device out of your pocket —some don't even have that—, Press a button and the AI will take care of freeing you from all that work, sift through the answers for you and give you just the most appropriate answer to the question you just asked.
Artificial intelligence wants to make us much more efficient.
Here we can open a debate about confidence in those answers, whether or not they are correct, we can talk about LLM hallucinations and even whether I have to do more searches to expand information. It is a topic that I find very interesting and about which I hope we will have many debates.
Unlike the form factors we know today, AI Gadgets have the peculiarity of doing exactly what we want. How many times have you not wanted to search for something and ended up opening Instagram, X or any social network, wasting your valuable time? These devices want to help you with that.
Devices with Artificial Intelligence seek immediacy, efficiency and productivity. In addition, ease of use, integration (for blind people it will be an absolutely essential tool) and obtaining answers. He wants us to achieve what we have today but better.
The problem with AI devices, the “form factor”
Applications on smartphones and computers have become a standard for years. Companies are interested in using them, developing them and, above all, monetizing them, either with advertising in them or simply improving them so that you buy the product they offer and spend more time in them.
If we talk about the Rabbit r1 and its LAM, that promises to be able to have interactions with applications as if they were ourselves, eliminating the complete use of those applications, imagine. Suddenly Spotify, DoorDash or Uber as an app would take a backseat.
On the other hand, one of the difficulties we face in the development of these gadgets is that We are so used to carrying mobile phones that the idea that we have to carry one more device seems inconceivable to us.. Many people simply refuse to do so.
There is another problem although for me it is not, although it must be mentioned and that is that we are checking that These gadgets, at the moment, are imperfect, they fail and make mistakes., but as I said at the beginning, we have just started with this world, so I understand that in a matter of another couple of years they will have been refined to almost excellence.
These are all unavoidable problems today, but I am sure that they can be changed through people's habits - as we did with smartphones. to the improvement of these language models or the creation of action models As the Rabbit LAM.
What type of devices with artificial intelligence are there?
Currently there is no separation by type of AI gadgets, since on the one hand we haven't been around long enough to have been able to categorize them and secondly, there are so few that the variety is almost non-existent, but for my part I have decided for the moment to separate them into two.
Of those we have today, I am going to separate them according to the learning capabilities they have by themselves or through the user. Is the gadget capable of executing actions that we have taught it or is it simply dedicated to executing a task?
Devices capable of learning
There is a group of devices that have a peculiarity that distinguishes them from the others, and that is the fact that through a series of instructions, prompts or in some cases their own operating systems, They are capable of executing tasks.
This is fantastic for being able to train them in different tasks, such as executing actions, opening applications and help us with spreadsheets, emails or in short any work that can be done through them.
At the moment we can meet some problems are in their infancy and that require a level of trust that is far above what we are apparently willing to grant them today.
But I am sure that it will change over time and they will be the successors of the assistants we have today, much faster, more efficient, safer and more diligent. It's my opinion, but I'm sure 100%.
Within this group we have the Rabbit r1 and the 01 Light from Open Interpreter. Click on the images to learn more about them.
Devices with execution AI
In essence, they fulfill one or more specific functions, but they work with what they have as a base, whether from the cloud or installed on the device itself. They are not necessarily limited, but there are some aspects that they cannot reach
Unlike the AI gadgets that learn from us, these are equally impressive, but their task is to answer questions like the AI Pin or recently the Rayban Meta, or even simpler, record conversations like the PLAUD Note.
Click on their names to read more about these AI devices.
AI gadgets that you can now buy
You currently have all the devices I'm talking about on sale in Spain, although some have nuances:
rabbit r1
It can be purchased from its official website and shipping is expected for the second half of 2024. nYou have it for a price of about 200$ and it does not require a subscription.
Humane AI Pin
The AI Pin can be purchased through its official website. It costs 699$ in its Basic version and has a subscription of about 24$ per month.
PLAUD Note
This can be purchased both from its official website and from Amazon at a price of 159$ plus expenses.
- Hardware interface: bluetooth
- Memory storage capacity: 64.0 GB
01 Light
This novel AI Gadget is not yet available for purchase unless you are a developer, in which case it is available for about 110$.
Ray-Ban Meta
This wearable gadget is available on Amazon and its website for just over 300$ already with. the update of artificial intelligence.
AI devices that are yet to come
I don't know what the future holds, but I hope - and wish - that many more devices with artificial intelligence will come along, that we will be able to change conventional form factors and that we will be able to free ourselves from mobile phones and computers, even if only for a moment...
