The hottest generative AI hardware has sold more than 100,000 units. After tearing it apart, it turns out it’s just an Android app?

「Rabbit R1, it is essentially a Launcher program built on the Android system. After cracking, it can run on the mobile phone.」

By cracking , Rahman managed to get the R1 app up and running on a Pixel 6a phone.

On Tuesday, American journalist Mishaal Rahman exposed the details of the well-known generative AI hardware Rabbit R1, which immediately attracted the attention of the technology circle.

A few months ago, two startups, Humane and Rabbit, continued to launch their artificial intelligence devices-Ai Pin and Rabbit R1. Initially, some believed these devices would usher in a new era of wearable artificial intelligence. However, as the months passed, controversy grew over the two devices.

The Rabbit R1 was first unveiled at CES 2024. It is a palm-sized AI smart device priced at $199. Rabbit, the R&D company behind it, is committed to developing the next generation operating system based on the Large Action Model (LAM).

R1 is a completely independent device driven primarily by natural language. The small device is fully equipped with touch screen, buttons, scroll wheel, microphone, speakers, 360-degree panoramic camera, supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and also supports USB-C SIM card slot.

This cube looks like it has magic. Judging from the parameters, the R1 is about half the size of the iPhone and weighs 115 grams. It is equipped with a 2.88-inch touch screen, a built-in 2.3GHz processor, 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage space.

This is a hardware-based operating system called Rabbit OS. The operating system it carries can easily control cloud AI without using a large language model. This model is called the "grand motion model" and is a universal controller that can be used in a variety of applications.

#The characteristic of AI technology is that it shows its natural large model capabilities, which enables it to process massive amounts of data. If you ask R1 a question, by clicking the dialogue button below, you will get a response within 500 milliseconds, without any need to wake up, and the answer process will also have subtitles.

Like many new forms of tech hardware, the Rabbit R1 has experienced internet-wide buzz, supply, and discussion since it exploded onto the scene at CES. Some people think that it has created a new smart hardware category, "This is the iPhone moment in the AI ​​era"; others think that what this hardware can do "can be solved with an app" and "Why not use a mobile phone?". However, the controversy does not prevent R1 from selling well.

On April 24, the Rabbit R1 held a launch event. Within 24 hours, 10,000 units of the $199 R1 were sold. After restocking, it was sold out again, and more than 100,000 units have been sold so far.

The startup company Rabbit has also successfully caught the wave of generative AI, and its cumulative financing has reached 58 million US dollars. The most recent round of funding was in March.

People are clamoring for new products. But on the other hand, objectively speaking, Android phones can basically do all the functions provided by Rabbit R1, and even a single Android application can complete it.

For example, get answers to questions through natural language dialogue with a large language model (LLM), take a picture of an object to get information about it, play music from Spotify, take a taxi from Uber, order food from Doordash... .... We can complete these functions of Rabbit R1 on our smartphones. Such capabilities are also listed as featured capabilities in many of the latest generation flagship phones.

If everything that an artificial intelligence gadget like Rabbit R1 can do can be done through an app, then in fact it should be better to do one less thing than to do one more thing and directly access the AI ​​with your mobile phone.

Not to mention that Rabbit R1 seems to be running Android under the hood, and the entire interface for user interaction is powered by a single Android application.

Mishaal Rahman said a source familiar with the matter shared the Rabbit R1 launcher APK with him. Mishaal Rahman successfully installed it on his Android phone, a Pixel 6a, with some modifications.

Mishaal Rahman said: "After the installation is complete, you can set up your Android phone just like setting up Rabbit R1. The volume increase and decrease on the phone corresponds to the hardware buttons of Rabbit R1. Create a "rabbithole" account, you can start talking to the AI ​​assistant."

Because the Rabbit R1's display is significantly smaller and lower-resolution than the Pixel 6a, the home screen interface only takes up a small part of the phone's display. Still, we were able to ask questions to the AI ​​assistant as if we were actually using the Rabbit R1 hardware.

So to put it simply, although the operating system on R1 can be a customized Android system or even a customized Android ROM, It's really just an app contained in an .apk file and can be installed elsewhere.

On Reddit, someone has reported receiving the leaked code as well, and unfortunately it may indeed be a good Android/iOS app.

Mishaal Rahman didn’t bother to test any other features like Spotify integration, Vision, etc., but there’s no need to be surprised if some of them don’t work. After all, the Rabbit R1's launcher app is designed to come pre-installed in the firmware and be granted system-level permissions.

In any case, Mishaal Rahman believes that running applications on mobile phones shows that: "Essentially, many niche hardware products are running on modified versions of AOSP."

Not long after the news was exposed, Rabbit founder and CEO Lu Cheng quickly responded to Mishaal Rahman:

Rabbit R1 is not an Android application. We are aware that there are some unofficial Rabbit OS application/website emulators. We understand that people are eager to experience our AI and LAM, rather than waiting for their R1 to arrive.

That being said, to clear up any misunderstandings and set the record straight, Rabbit OS and LAM run on the cloud with what is called AOSP and lower level firmware modifications, so there is no local presence of the appropriate OS and cloud endpoints Pirated APKs will not be able to access our services.

Rabbit OS is customized for R1 and we do not support third-party clients. Following today's OTA, we have implemented several cloud authentication improvements to authenticate device/client requests. We reserve all rights to pursue any malicious and illegal cybersecurity activities against our Services.

# In short, the official denied it.

Some netizens said that even if it is really just an app mode, R1 is worth buying because using it eliminates the need to find apps on an already very complicated phone. As a piece of generative AI hardware, Rabbit R1 is much cheaper than AI Pin and has rich features.

Maybe, it’s time to look at the actual experience of tens of thousands of users.

Reference content:

https://www.androidauthority.com/rabbit-r1-is-an-android-app-3438805/

https://twitter.com/JefferyTatsuya/status/1785462764812845398

https://www.reddit.com/r/Rabbitr1/comments /1ch6fy0/so_rabbit_is_just_an_app_in_a_handicapped_android/

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