Rabbit’s “r1” artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, which emerged as a hit product at CES, sold 50,000 units within 10 days of its launch. Furthermore, Purplexity’s AI search technology is introduced to strengthen the chatbot function.
Tech Crunch reported on the 19th (local time) that Rabbit sold out the fifth pre-order for the r1 and initiated the sixth order for an additional 50,000 units.
According to this, when Rabbit was introduced at CES on the 9th, it sold 10,000 units in the first day alone, emerging as a surprise star of CES.
This morning it was announced
The company confessed at CES: “At first we thought it would be appropriate to sell only 500 units.”
Also, on this day, it was announced that it will use AI Perplexity technology to answer user questions. Purplexity is a startup specializing in interactive search engines that attracted investments of 73.6 million dollars (about 100 billion won) on the 4th.
By mobilizing the best existing large language models (LLMs) such as Open AI “GPT-4”, Google “Geminii”, Antropic “Claude”, Meta “Rama 2” and Mistral AI “Mistral 7B”, we provide the optimal language based to user questions. He replies. For this reason, some consider it a rival to Google search.
After becoming famous at CES, Rabbit immediately collaborated with Perplexity. Specifically, we’ve decided to provide one year of free use of Perplexity’s “Pro” paid feature to 100,000 r1 buyers on a first-come, first-served basis.
Rabbit’s tweet announcing 50,000 units sold out (Photo = X, Rabbit)
Not much is known about the r1 as there hasn’t been much testing done on the product yet by the media or influencers. However, it has gained great popularity due to its relatively low price of only $199 (about 266,000 won) and compact design. In fact, the external design of the product was completed in collaboration with ‘Teen Engineering’, an IT brand for the young generation.
It’s a kind of “mobile phone app controller” that lets you search the web, play music, call a cab, or go shopping without the hassle of taking out your phone. It features a 2.88-inch touch screen, talk buttons, 360-degree rotatable camera, speaker and microphone.
However, this is not an “AI on the device” operating on its own chip, but a method that calls a large language model (LLM) over the Internet.
There are mixed opinions on the usefulness of AI hardware, such as Humain’s “AI Pin”, but analysis suggests that the popularity of this product is due to the fact that many people like technologies such as ChatGPT. Just as Apple spearheaded the smartphone era, some argue that these AI devices could be a catalyst for opening up a broader market.
Reporter Lim Da-jun ydj@aitimes.com
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