The Rabbit R1 & Humane AI Pin Will Probably Fail, but Apple and Google Can Pick Up the Slack

Just after watching the Rabbit tech founder Jesse’s keynote, it hit me why devices like the new Rabbit Companion and Humane AI Pin face an uphill battle gaining traction.

First thing first! Rabbit Companion looks like a great device 👏 . Introducing a large action model is exciting, but that is not what I want to talk about.

I want to focus on the problem.

First Humane AI Pin, now Rabbit R1 Pocket Companion, both look like very good devices but lack one basic thing — they try to replace the devices we already use. If they completely replaced our devices, that would be fine, but that’s where the issue is.

We use and consume this digital world differently, and both these devices fail to understand the usage patterns of smartphones and other wearables.

The solution is that we are in a place where we cannot replace smartphones. We can only enhance them. Rabbit R1 solves one of the major problems that other devices cannot, which is — “Perform actions” or “Do things.” — I’m not talking about the simple actions Siri and Google Assistant can do. I’m talking about complete hands-free action by AI on any app from my phone. We cannot replace hardware or apps. We need to build a solution that bridges this gap.

Here is what I would have done:

A companion device that works seamlessly with the smartphone or changes to the smartphone OS itself. Yes, you heard me right. Maybe a custom Android version made by the Rabbit team that still works with existing apps and app stores, with Rabbit being the backbone AI of the OS rather than just another app. (Yes, I know what you’re thinking — exactly like the Rabbit OS they built for the companion device, but for a consumer Android OS).

This is not a far-fetched dream. Within years, I expect Google and Apple to enhance their OS with AI capabilities integrated into the core OS.

I’m open to feedback about my perspective and discussions on others’ opinions on these things. Let me know your thoughts.

Also published here.