With AI advancements being made constantly, we’ve started seeing some interesting inventions pop up in the tech space. Sure, ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s CoPilot are all useful and interesting in their ways (and have their downfalls), but most of what’s taking advantage of the ongoing AI boom are apps and software products that complement your existing workflows.
In contrast, dedicated hardware AI devices are relatively new. We’ve seen two of them so far: the Humane AI pin and the Rabbit R1. Both feature an interesting list of features and are devices you carry around in addition to your phone that provide you with different ways of interacting with an AI assistant.
However, many of the features promised by both Humane’s AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 are quite similar to what your smartphone offers. So, does it make sense to carry around another gadget just so you could have access to a more powerful AI assistant? After all, whether you own an Android or iPhone, you still get full access to either Google Assistant or Siri, respectively, basically all the time.
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Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1: What are they?
Without going into too much detail, here’s a quick overview of the two devices we’re discussing. The Humane AI pin is a small, wearable gadget you can pin to your clothes. You interact with it by either tapping the pin and talking to it or by holding your hand out in front of it and using the UI projected on your hand, controlled by gestures.
By contrast, the Rabbit R1 is rather traditional in its approach. You get what’s essentially a very bright orange cuboid with a 2.8-inch TFT touchscreen, a rotating dial and button to move around the user interface, and a button to wake the AI or make menu selections. Since both AI assistants are multi-modal, the Humane AI pin and Rabbit R1 also feature cameras that can take photos/videos of your surroundings and give you more information.
While a good idea on the surface, their first catch, before we even begin discussing what these AI assistants can do, is the price. The Humane AI pin comes in at a steep $700, with a $24 per month subscription required for it to be of any use. The Rabbit R1 isn’t as bad and comes much cheaper at $200, with no subscription. That said, you’ll have to get a dedicated SIM card for the R1 to use when not connected to a WiFi network, meaning there’s still an additional cost you have to pay every month.
Both AI assistants have similar features, that is, you carry them around you and every time you have a question or want some help, invoke the assistant, ask your question, hear the answer (or in the case of the R1, see it on the screen), and go about your day. Courtesy of their onboard cameras, you can also snap a picture and ask what’s in the photo.
A simple explanation of these devices would be if ChatGPT could be turned into a small gadget you carry around instead of an app you open on your smartphone. As you can probably guess, any of the new AI chatbots, including but not limited to ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Perplexity, or the hundreds of other options available online that function as apps on your phone can do just about everything that the AI pin and R1 offer — except they’re mostly free and run on a device you already possess, which leads us to the next part of the story.
Hardware aside, the capabilities of these AI assistants, are not quite as advanced as they aim to be one day. They still suffer AI hallucinations and often give out incorrect answers as we saw happen with AI chatbots on the internet not so long ago. The fact that they’re also a serious privacy concern adds fuel to the fire.
Why aren’t they just apps?
The AI pin and R1 both run custom operating systems. While the AI pin’s take of a laser projection on your hand as a way of seeing and navigating the user interface is unique and does have a certain appeal, Rabbit OS, the “personalised operating system based on a natural language interface” has already been ported to Android as a standalone app, albeit with a few mods.
This is not a good look for the R1. If the entire premise for the device can be packaged as an Android app anyone can download and run, the presence of a dedicated hardware device for it will be quickly rendered obsolete.
Security and privacy concerns
Another thing that you have to be vary of when using such devices is that they come with a mic and camera, and have unfettered access to your life. We’ve already seen more than enough cases of generative AI tools leaking information and raising general privacy issues with how they use and source data. With a dedicated hardware device on your person at all times, as these devices are meant to be, a small glitch in the software can easily turn them into portable surveillance equipment for the everyday tech enthusiast.
You’re dealing with the privacy concerns that a generative AI assistant brings, as well as those of a smart speaker and a wearable camera and mic. These concerns can and will be addressed in the future, though. Generative AI and related products are here to stay and will continue getting safer. Clever hardware design, such as the R1’s swivelling camera, can also help ease these concerns. However, carrying around devices like these still exposes you to another vector of attack.
Added cost of ownership
After the AI pin and R1 received scorching reviews from most leading tech reviewers around the globe, especially from MKBHD and Dave2D—two of the biggest tech YouTubers—fans of the device have been quick to defend them, saying that the devices are in early stages and should be given time before they realise their full potential.
That statement is true, except for a device in its early stages and not being sold as a consumer-ready product. For example, Rabbit claims that the R1 can control various apps for you but only includes support for four apps at the moment — Uber, Doordash, Spotify, and Midjourney. The company claims that over 800 apps are trained to work with the device and are ready to go, except they haven’t finished building the user interfaces for their custom OS and will release them later.
With Google I/O and Apple’s WWDC on the horizon, both these devices seem to be rushed attempts to win a race before tech giants announce the next big AI advancement on smartphones, which makes hardware devices like these redundant.
Do these devices make sense?
To put it bluntly, not right now. Unless you’re a tech enthusiast with money to burn and are okay with waiting for features that may or may not ship, you’re better off using Google Assistant, ChatGPT, or any other generative AI chatbot you choose.
With poor battery life, slow and often incorrect responses, basic features missing (the R1 can’t even create reminders or put things on your calendar), and a steep price tag, the AI Pin and R1 are not ready for the general public.
However, they have opened up an interesting avenue for a new device that is separate from your smartphone but has a purpose in your day-to-day life. Not every problem can be solved with hardware; not everything can be just another app. Suppose manufacturers looking to entire the field can make a compelling enough device that doesn’t have the same hardware or software pitfalls we see Humane and Rabbit crash into. In that case, there’s a place for hardware AI assistants.
Or you can just use an app. The choice is yours.
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