AI gadgets are here, but are they any good?

If 2023 was the year of AI software, 2024 is shaping up to be the year of AI hardware.

Over the past few months, companies like Google, Samsung, Meta and Microsoft have shown off smartphones and laptops – even glasses – all of which claim to heavily integrate generative artificial intelligence. But the moment has also given rise to a new type of device centered around getting users to interact with AI.

At an event in the TWA Hotel in New York City last month, customers took delivery of the very first Rabbit R1s. Bright orange and about the size and shape of a packet of sticky notes, the device has a compact, 2.88-inch screen, a camera in the top right corner, a scroll wheel, and a button on the side to activate voice controls. The idea, according to Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu, is to reduce the number of steps it takes to do something you currently do on a smartphone.

“Our mission is to create the simplest computer – something so intuitive that you don’t need to learn how to use it,” Lyu said at the company’s Consumer Electronics Show keynote in January.

Instead of sifting through pages of apps and notifications, all while trying not to get distracted by Instagram, Rabbit says users can simply speak a command to the R1. Then, using an artificial intelligence technology they call a ‘Large Action Model,’ the device will fulfill that demand.

At least, that’s the idea.

Rabbit’s early adopters

Daniel Ko is a fractional CFO for AI startups. He says his work doesn’t involve Rabbit at the moment – he’s just a customer for now – but he sees a lot of potential in the R1.

“Personally, for me, I bought it because it looked super cool and, in a way, it’s the first generation product of something that could be, you know, like the next iPhone maybe,” Ko told ABC Audio.

“I think in this moment I’m just curious,” said Danny Cole, an artist based in New York City who also has an R1. He says he likes the idea of a device that moves people away from smartphones.

“I think it’s tough for us to predict if phones are the answer to our needs in ten years from now, twenty years from now,” said Cole, adding: “they’re probably not!”

Jonah Cohn is a college student in Chicago. He told ABC Audio that he came to New York just so he could pick up his R1 in person.

“I would definitely consider myself a serial early adopter,” said Cohn, who also owns a Vision Pro, Apple’s mixed reality headset that went on sale earlier this year. “I’m really one who likes to try things in the first generation so I can get a grasp on what’s going to be taking over the rest of our world.”

But he also said that early adoption is risky – especially when it involves artificial intelligence, which has faced criticism for being unreliable and inaccurate.

“I was scared that I was going to get this thing and it’s not gonna do what it says. And I still haven’t figured that out yet, because you know, even though I just got it I’ve only had it for like five minutes, you know?” Cohn said.

The Humane AI Pin

Rabbit isn’t the only tech company staking a claim in the AI gadget space. Humane, a company founded by several former Apple employees, recently started selling the AI Pin, a $699 wearable device 1 3/4 inches square and 1/3 inch thick that attaches to a person’s clothing, like a lapel pin.

“The AI Pin is a totally new kind of computer,” Bethany Bongiorno, CEO of Humane, told ABC Audio. She said despite the price tag – and the monthly $24 phone plan – the Pin is not meant to be a smartphone replacement.

“When you got a smartphone, it didn’t replace your laptop. But it created a very different relationship with your laptop,” Bongiorno said. “It was much more focused – you went to your laptop for certain things that it was very great at. You went to your smartphone for things that it was really great at. And how we see it is the Pin does allow you to have a more focused relationship with your phone.”

According to Humane, a phone is for things like watching videos and scrolling social media. The AI Pin, meanwhile, is intended to handle tasks like sending messages, setting reminders, and looking things up. The Pin’s answers, like the Rabbit, are read aloud by an automated voice. Those answers are generated by a combination of Large Language Models – that is, artificial intelligence technology that can understand and generate human language – from companies like OpenAI and Google. Bongiorno said it’s all in an effort to keep users from getting sucked into their phones.

“I prefer my pin in more moments throughout the day because I choose to want to remain present,” she said. “I personally want to be able to live my life out in the world with my family with my friends, and I want to try to use my phone less.”

However, reviews of the AI Pin have so far been overwhelmingly negative.

The Pin gets panned

Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, who goes by “MKBHD” on YouTube, titled his review of Humane’s device “The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed… For Now.” A review from tech publication The Verge notes “the AI Pin is not worth the money.”

Engadget Deputy Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low told ABC Audio the device “doesn’t solve any real problem,” and “doesn’t know how to be good.”

“There was this big backlash back when the Humane AI Pin reviews came out where a lot of the reviews were negative, including mine,” said Wired Reviews Editor Julian Chokkattu.

He said his complaints with the Pin covered everything from its limited features to its unreliable AI-generated answers. Several reviewers said the AI Pin took too long to respond to questions, which means they often reverted to their smartphones for answers. Others encountered overheating issues that made the AI Pin uncomfortable to wear.

Humane responded that many of these problems are being addressed in software updates, which will “enable [the] Ai Pin to become smarter and more powerful over time.” The company added that they will continue to make improvements.

In a statement, the company told ABC News that the AI Pin represents “just the first page of the first chapter of an all-new product category.”

Chokkattu, however, said buyers should hold off on purchasing devices that are incomplete: “My request would be that they just ship finished products, but we are not in that world anymore unfortunately.” In the meantime, he said, most people already have a device that does everything the AI gadgets try to do.

“I personally think none of these devices that are coming out have offered anything anywhere close to dethroning, like, the smartphone,” said Chokkattu.

AI gadgets in the real world

Not everyone has had a disappointing experience with these early AI gadgets. Jonah Cohn, the Rabbit R1 early adopter from Chicago, also has a Humane AI Pin. He says it has proven useful, such as when he recently stumbled upon a group of people dressed up in costumes in a park.

“I saw a bunch of people cosplaying in Star Wars outfits, and I was like, ‘hey, why are people cosplaying in Star Wars outfits in Chicago today? Is there something going on?’ And within a couple seconds it was able to tell me there was a convention going on down the street,” Cohn said. “That was pretty cool. I didn’t have to whip out my phone, I didn’t have to disengage from whatever social interaction I was in. I just kinda asked it really quick.”

Even so, aside from the technical capabilities of the device, Cohn said the Pin has presented some social challenges, like the first time he wore it to the grocery store.

“I kinda got embarrassed when I got to the checkout counter, and I quickly, like, took it off my shirt,” he said. “Because like, I know it’s not recording, but the guy at the checkout counter, who I kinda know, doesn’t know that. And I don’t want to really put him through that awkward situation of, ‘is this guy recording me?’”

About a week after the Rabbit event, Danny Cole tested his new R1 in McCarren Park in Brooklyn, New York. When prompted, the device accurately answered questions like “what’s the weather right now?” and “who was the president in 1955?”

In addition, the R1 was also able to identify some things around it using its camera system, saying things like, “these appear to be pigeons,” and, “this is a Jeep Wrangler.”

But Cole admits the device is far from perfect.

“There was a song that I had in my head, and there were certain lyrics that I remembered really clearly. And I was like ‘oh, I bet I can ask the Rabbit what song this is,’” Cole told ABC Audio. “I asked the Rabbit, and it gave me a different song. And I tried again and again and again and it just wouldn’t get the song right.”

After one week of ownership, Cole said he’s disappointed with his purchase. The R1 is missing features he was expecting to be there, and its reliance on AI for its responses means it can be inaccurate.

“It’s unfortunate to say but, like, point blank, it doesn’t really reliably work yet,” said Cole.

Rabbit told ABC News that “the accuracy and detail of [the R1’s responses] is based solely on” the large language models it uses. Rabbit has also started sending out software updates to address some issues.

But for now, Cole’s smartphone isn’t going anywhere.

“It’s really neat to show people – look at it when it works,” he said of the Rabbit R1. “But it’s not useful until you can rely on it to work.”

Listen to the full story from ABC Audio: