The Rabbit R1 is the proof the tech industry has learned nothing in the past years
The tech industry has found its own rabbit hole.
2020 sounds like so long in the past, but it should not mean it never happened. I always thought the lessons we have learned from having our planet shut down would linger, if at least for a while.
Yet, after talking to multiple Startup owners who were pitching their ideas and why we should work for very little money for them (as it would pay off in the future) I lost most of my hopes of Silicon Valley reinventing itself.
One year after my initial frustration with the tech world, after VC’s lost their faith in Startup’s ability to become and remain relevant, after the fall of FTX and the insistance in making everything “blockchain”, we are now at the peak of the AI frenzy.
To the point that every piece of software, every new product has to come with at least one AI capability. Hence the patent for an AI Toaster was granted in the UK.
Coming from a person who loves new gadgets, I am always pleased when I come across a product that is solving a real-world problem, or that could save me more time or if anything make life slightly better.
None of these qualities could be applied to Rabbit Inc.’s “Rabbit R1”.
Designed by Swedish consumer electronics firm “Teenage Engineering” do offer the looks. From Dieter Ram’s functionalist dials to the animated rabbit on its screen, the Rabbit R1 has its charms.
However, the pitfall comes from its user experience.
Starting from the Rabbit OS, which is described as “a personalized operating system through a natural language interface.”
The company promised a device that would be more like a companion for your phone and would have a language model so powerful, capable of arranging an Uber, ordering your food from GrubHub or even completing more complex tasks that you would teach it.
Lyu’s examples include asking the app to perform a flow on Photoshop (by the way, this already exists and it’s called Actions. It’s been there for years.). And even for this type of task, the device is unable to perform. Just another promise to sell.
The sense of grandiose, inspired by Apple’s keynote superlatives to raise more VC money, and more purchases is very much present in Lyu’s keynote, as well as in most other Silicon Valley’s frauds.
“Start up, cash in, sell out, bro down”. South Park made fun of it 10 years ago and yet people still fall for it.
I could speak more about the product, but the scatting reviews speak for themselves.
What makes this an issue is the fact that so much money, so many brilliant people, and so much mental capacity have been used, over and over and over again, for the sake of making very few people rich, while adding more garbage to the planet. All of that without having a purpose, or a solution based on evidence, on real daily struggles.
Imagine what all this money and capacity could do to actually produce the much-needed changes we need. From the ongoing challenges of Climate Change to housing and energy crises’ the topics are endless. Just pick one up and go with it.
Instead, some startups seem laser-focused on “sell out, bro down”. This is not only self-serving but, when it comes to physical products, it only adds clutter and distractions to our lives for a very short period of time, while making us sometimes $200, other times $100k poorer.
