Rabbit was once an NFT company that it wants you to forget about
Rabbit was once an NFT company that it wants you to forget about
If you're looking to invest in a Rabbit R1, there's something about the company's past that you should know about, first.
I mean these kinds of "AI companions" are grifts anyway. They won't take off because they are a solution looking for a problem. They aren't as affordable as the entry level HomePod/Amazon Pod/Google Home units, so they can't be bought as a "why not, and it's a speaker anyway" type thing. They don't have any secondary functionality you don't already have in your phone.
And if that's not enough, you can bet your cute arse on that Apple and Google are both working on bringing LLM functions into their assistants, basically making these units obsolete.
The moment that these companies decide that they can't afford to pay for servers and API subscriptions anymore, the service will die and you'll end up with a colourful brick. Don't buy these things, they're unfinished and will die within a year or two.
199The ultimate issue is exactly what you said; phones exist. I’m not carrying another voice assistant around when both Siri and Google Assistant can be installed on my phone.
Based on MKBHD’s review this whole product category definitely screams “solution in search of a problem”
62Like, I can imagine a world where a smart watch replaces my phone for day to day stuff, but that's because I'm in that weird space where I prefer a laptop for almost anything serious, but still appreciate the convenience and functionality of remaining connected wherever I am, even if I'm on the move.
But another device I need to keep in my pocket? What's the point?
21Yeah, build this into a watch or Earbud that I already have on person for other reasons but gives me hands free access to a decent AI when I don't have my phone on me, and I might have some interest.
5
Absolutely a grift.
The CEO is a fucking joke. This is their bio on linkedin.
Serial Entrepreneur, semi - Pro Lamborghini Super Trofeo racer, music producer, car and vintage synth collector.
34The resume of someome who had never done an honest day's work in their life.
39Only the first item is related to business, and even that implies repeated failure.
4
Solutions looking for problems is a mainstay in multiple industries from material science to chemistry. It's not necessarily a bad idea.
11In the early days of laser development, it was seen as a solution seeking a problem. A few decades later, it actually turned out to be really handy, but it would have been tough to sell this idea to anyone before that. Imagine how hard it is to find funding for research that solves a problem that doesn’t exist.
2
They're a solution looking to solve a problem that already has a well established better solution. The modern smart phone and voice assistats have been around for 14+ years....
For all these Ai devices can currently accomplish, our budget $200 phones can do an unmeasurable amount more.
If anyrhing, they should be focusing on the voice assistant aspect - "Hey google, add nearest gas station to my trip" "Here's a list of gas stations (I know you're driving but please review this list and select one using the tiny select button)" {presses button} "Please enable location data analytics to continue"
7I think there's already a way to forward Google Home requests directly to ChatGPT, I might be wrong though.
5That wouldn't surprise me. I think there's a Siri shortcut for integrating with ChatGPT. It's not the most elegant of solutions but it works well enough. I'm quite sure that this year we'll see whatever Google and Apple has cooked up in terms of machine learning integration into the operating systems. Likely a flagship feature of the new Pixel phones, and definitely a significant Siri update on iPhone, probably along with some gimmicky feature to sell the new 16 Pros.
At that point, who is going to care about these devices?
3
In addition to being able to run the exact same thing on that phone you already have, too.
Their device does not have any specific hardware for their usage. Even if Google and Apple don't bring any improvement to their own solution, soon enough someone is bound to just provide an "assistant AI app" with a subscription, proxying openai requests and using the touchscreen, camera, micro and speaker that are already there instead of making you buy a new set of those.
5The "AI" in the R1 is utter shit. Wired eviscerated it in a review.
7
All they had to do was swap NFT with AI and their deck was ready to go
83Which is hilarious because they are actually marketing jokes where this is the punchline
15
From NFT to AI, no surprise there.
71That was exactly what I was thinking when I read the article. I didn't know that's what they were doing before this, but after reading multiple reviews saying what a piece of shit the Rabbit is, I was not at all surprised they used to hawk NFTs.
18
damn I forgot about NFTs. That shit was funny
43Scamming people that missed the Bitcoin boom
19I referred to them as Pizza Without Shrooms
2I call it the "My wife gets railed daily by other men. But I'm happy because at least I own the marriage certificate." thing
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5
Did they forget smartphones exist? Why would I want another device for something my smartphone could do?
33Segmentation
9There is definitely a case for having a separate device for something a smartphone can do, if it can do it better, e.g a camera.
This device doesn't do it better in my opinion.
1There is definitely a case for having a separate device for something a smartphone can do, if it can do it better, e.g a camera.
Frankly things have gone full circle and the list of "external devices that can do it better" seems to get larger and larger each release. Pretty much all phones excel at these days is scrolling through social media and keeping us entertained on the toilet.
1
Plenty of companies pivot when their initial business plan doesn't work out or if the market changes.
For example, did you know that American Express used to be a shipping company like FedEx and UPS? Or Mattel used to sell picture frames before they started making toys? Or Nintendo started out as a playing card company and still sells them today?
27Yeah but the people running this seem to only be interested in pivoting between whatever the current grift is. We should come up with a word for people who do that, maybe something like "grifters".
36That's a good point. Cryptocurrency and NFTs are not good things to be involved in.
10
How are they still in business?
25I'm guessing they won't be for long.
12It seems the way VC's throw money at pure unadulterated hype, don't count them out just yet. So long as you're good at marketing, you don't have to be good at development; you don't have to have a good idea; you don't have to have a product that does what you've promised, works or even exists... they'll shower a literal pile of shit with money until it sparkles like a Faberge egg if you can only generate buzz.
4
Luck. The one that was formed by former English Nijisanji managers went immediately bankrupt, and also had dire consequences to Nijisanji itself (which also tried to step into NFTs at one point if it wasn't for the talents) as those managers were now missing from the company.
Basically if you were lucky and able to sell your NFTs for a hyperinflated price to be used in money-laundering schemes while you also profiting off of them on every transaction. If not, then your life savings were wasted on some crappy commissions.
8Pure hype.
Plus big tech companies are scared to lose out to each other, so they'll buy into it even as a known risk.
4It takes time for your bad consequences to catch up with you. Since the idea is clearly horseshit, I doubt the CEO put a large amount of his money on the line. It will take him some time to piss through the investor money and then you will see a sad "goodbye" message from Rabbit Inc. as they brick the devices on the way out. (since it does nothing without their server)
2
Why do people care so much that it’s an app? If it was not an app would everyone have been buying it in droves?
At least part of this is due to a direct quote from the CEO mentioning how they need a VERY bespoke Android version for it to run, which is clearly bullshit because you can run the APK on other devices other than the Rabbit R1 hardware.
Since Rabbit was at least partially funded by the "Cyber Manufacture Co" rug-pull and they suffered NO penalty the CEO has taken this as a sign the market will tolerate his scams. You should view the Rabbit R1 through the lens of it being a former "web3" company and I'm sure the shady legacy remains inside that company.
Since Rabbit sells at $199 and then NO monthly charge, there is basically no viable funding model for this company. Every single request you send the Rabbit costs them money. So, it's only a matter of time before the R1 itself is "rugged", whether that's suddenly requiring a monthly fee OR just shutting down entirely.
My guess would be, like the Humane Pin, they wanted to do a monthly fee, but if they did the R1 would sell even worse (since it's basically entirely broken out of the box). If these guys make it 3 years I'll be surprised. And, since the R1 does nothing locally, it turns into a nice paperweight when these guys eventually pull THIS rug.
18Then why not just make a new company?
16Save a few thousands for incorporation fees also some bs experience that you can use to boast to vc investors
14Why bother? They made a bunch of money with the rug pull and suffered no consequences. Scammers are usually lazy.
2
The enshittification of enshittification.
Yes, I know that is not the correct use of this word given the context, but I think it gets the point across regarding what has happened to tech overall.
14Enshittification is used plenty often enough, we don't need to be using it incorrectly imo.
11
Where does Teenage Engineering fit into this? Besides being overpriced toys?
11"Adorable" is their word, not mine. I think it's pretty damn ugly.
9
Why do people care so much that it's an app? If it was not an app would everyone have been buying it in droves?
3Because it means the $200 hardware is pointless.
24It's just a toy, a neat gadget, I also wouldn't care if it was an app, it would be just another gpt frontend
0
And here I thought it was referencing my car.
1