The Rabbit R1 Will Offer Up-To-Date Answers Powered By Perplexity's AI (engadget.com) 18
Despite many questions going unanswered, a startup called Rabbit sold out of its pocket AI companion a day after it was debuted at CES 2024 last week. Now, the company finally shared more details about which large language model (LLM) will be powering the device. According to Engadget, the provider in question is Perplexity, "a San Francisco-based startup with ambitions to overtake Google in the AI space." From the report: Perplexity will be providing up-to-date search results via Rabbit's $199 orange brick -- without the need of any subscription. That said, the first 100,000 R1 buyers will receive one year of Perplexity Pro subscription -- normally costing $200 -- for free. This advanced service adds file upload support, a daily quota of over 300 complex queries and the ability to switch to other AI models (GPT-4, Claude 2.1 or Gemini), though these don't necessarily apply to the R1's use case.
Of course (Score:3, Interesting)
>"one year of Perplexity Pro subscription normally costing $200 "
Of course! Everything now has to have some never-ending subscription. Granted, it is optional in THIS case, but you know over time, more and more of what is useful or wanted will be under some type of continuous payment model.
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Rabid perplexity, if I've ever seen one.
subscription makes the project seem legit (Score:1)
Actually this a pro subscription option is a positive sign, they need a permanent income to pay their employees and servers, and the rabbit price seemed suspiciously low, now i feel more inclined to support them!
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To me it is the exact opposite. Hidden costs and subscriptions means you aren't buying something, you are just kinda leasing a service. Generally, I find it sleazy and/and misleading and/or unfriendly. Of course, there are exceptions. But when I am buying something like a washer, router, vacuum cleaner, stereo, car, camera, headphones, flash drive, etc, I want a product that completely works, not a subscription "service" with no idea what the actual cost of ownership will be.
Re: subscription makes the project seem legit (Score:3)
What do you do when the rented service barfs? Twiddle your thumbs and hope someone fixes it while still paying the rental fees?
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Good financials are simply not a guarantee of product longevity.
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Let's spot the Gen Zer that expects apps to be fixed in the blink of an eye or snap of their fingers!
In the real world life ain't that simple. There was a time (and may still be) when reverting to a previously known good working release was a serious risk due to the potential loss of data and-or functionality, and losing data and-or functionality is a BIG NO-NO in some companies like hospitals (been there), telecomm (and been there) and finanical houses (been there too). Yep, 3 things you don't mess with: p
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Strangely, software doesn't necessarily have to always barf as a natural conclusion. It may have bugs and updates, but there's a decent chance that they are minor and/or does not impact your usage.
Particularly all these consumer electronics/appliances pushing subscription services for functionailty that by any sane standard shouldn't require a subscription. Toyota disabled your keyfob remote start if your subscription ran out, despite no internet services being involved at all. There are *various* little
Re:subscription makes the project seem legit (Score:4, Insightful)
Suspiciously low? This hunk of plastic doesn't actually *do* anything. It's the front-end to a web-based service. Its one big claim to fame is that has a dedicated hardware button to get its attention rather than it listening for you to say the magic word. Everything else could be done better and more cheaply with a phone app, and you could probably repurpose a Bluetooth remote camera shutter trigger to give you the dedicated button if that was so important to you.
This has all the hallmarks of a product made for the sole purpose of riding the current buzzword hype long enough to sell the company and move on to the next buzzword.
It's a real product? (Score:2)
I thought it was a joke product like the Pomegranate phone.
You know when they say things look too good to be true...
WHY ????? (Score:2)
Quick! Monetize it before people find out! (Score:2)
Find out that AI is generally crap that is.
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AI isn't crap, but most of the applications are. Not the same things at all, though.
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I am talking about the current hype AI. That is pretty much crap.