#52 End of Smartphones? The Revolutionary Rabbit R1
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Hello friends and welcome back to the Future of UX podcast, your number one resource about the future, about technology, about any updates that are important for the design industry. My name is Patricia Reines, I'm your host for this podcast and I'm working as an innovation designer, UX designer in Zurich, Switzerland. I'm running my own business here.

And before we get started, a little announcement. Just yesterday, I had my free live training about how to leverage Generate-A-Fay as a designer in 2024. It was a huge success. You all loved it. Thank you so much for joining. I had an amazing time.

And I decided to do another live training also for zero euros. So you don't need to pay any money for it. And I will do it next Wednesday. So this is the second part of it. You don't need to attend the first one. You can just go to the next one if you miss that. No worries about that. It will be next Wednesday, 6 p.m. Central Europe time. So Berlin time.

If you want to save up, you can find it in your description box. So save your seat and hopefully see you next Wednesday about AI collaboration as a designer. Very exciting. And in this podcast episode, I want to talk about revolutionary, super interesting new device called the Rabbit R1.

This device is super interesting for us as designers and I'm also going to explain why this is so interesting and also why this is showing where the future is heading to. So I would say...

Let's dive right in, get comfortable and enjoy this episode about the Rabbit R1. So first of all, I will get started and talk a little bit about what this device actually is. After that, I will dive a little bit more into the topics that are interesting for us as designers, future interactions, why this is so interesting for us.

Then I will talk a little bit about the downsides from this device. And then we will look at the future. So summarizing basically everything we learned, all the insights, and then think about how the future might look like. So first of all, what is the Rabbit R1?

It's a tiny device in orange, so maybe you have seen it somewhere on social media. It looks a little bit like an 80 version of the Game Boy in the fancy new modern design, something like that. And it's pretty interesting because it has a screen and a few buttons, basically. The goal with the R1 is to create the symbols, the computer that you can think of.

where you don't really need to learn how to use them and really break away from any app-based operation systems. And they do that by using natural language, so the natural language approach. So you talk to this device, it understands what you want, and then get things done. And currently, all of us, probably all of us, are using these smartphones. And how do we...

interact with the smartphones usually with apps. There is an app for anything. For dating, for booking an Uber, for shopping, for ordering groceries. Basically anything you can think of, there is an app for.

And the smartphone, of course, was supposed to be very intuitive and the apps are just some kind of like add-ons. But nowadays, everything is around these apps. And throughout the day, you switch multiple times through different apps. And the time for...

a user having a problem, an idea, something that they would like to solve until like really getting to that point inside the app, you know, like opening the phone, unlocking it or like grabbing the phone, unlocking it, then searching for the app, then searching for the certain thing that they want to do in the app. So it takes a couple of seconds or maybe even longer to get to the result where you want to get.

And another problem that we are also seeing is that a lot of people, I would include myself into it, spend too much time with their phones, really killing time with their phones, getting distracted. They actually just want to quickly check their emails and then they go on Instagram, they scroll, they go on TikTok. They just get distracted. And Apple, Amazon and Google were pretty aware of that problem and they introduced smart speakers. Alexa, Siri,

Also the Google speakers. But the problem with those speakers is that they have pretty much no idea what you're talking about. So even today, when you talk to Siri or to Alexa, 50% of the times they have no idea what you want. Actually, like my whole home is pretty much smart home integrated. So we have a lot of like smart home light bulbs and everything.

And yesterday I just wanted to ask Alexa to just like turn the lights off. And then out of nowhere, she played a song about lights. Wow. I mean, this was kind of funny in that moment, but I think this really summarizes where these smart speakers are currently. They mostly don't really know what we're talking about.

And now we have large language and they know what you're talking about. They understand what you want. It feels like magic when you communicate with tools like ChatGPT because they get you. They find an answer. They find a solution. But these large language models also have a little problem or like a challenge because you can communicate with them, but they can't really get the things done. Although the ChatGPT introduced plugins that help you to communicate

kind of like use the use the apps in the background so for example if you want to book a flight to paris you could use the expedia plugin in chatgpt chatgpt or the plugin would search for flights and then you need to click on it go to the expedia page pay for it and book it basically

So you still can't do everything in ChatGPT. This is the starting point, but you still need to do certain steps afterwards. So they are great in understanding you, preparing content for you, but in like really doing the things or getting the things done, they are not so great. So tools like ChatGPT are extremely good at understanding your intentions. And...

And you also need to explain basically every step of the process, right? So first you ask for search for a flight, then for the next step. This is how these large language model works. And there is a lot of research currently on the topic of agents. And agents basically perform a task from start to end. I will also link a few agents in the description box in case you want to check it out. Super interesting and super fascinating.

So what's so interesting about the Rabbit R1 is that it's research-based and they research how humans interact with technologies. Their goal was that this device can do basically everything that iOS or Android or your desktop can do, but without the necessary steps.

So they combined the large language model to understand what you want. And then they integrated the large action model, LAM. This is how they call it. I am actually not sure if this is just a marketing term and if it's actually another large language model.

But what they're saying or what they said during the presentation is that they combined the large language model of understanding what the user wants and then also doing the action, something like you would do by going to the app. And they do that by being trained on how people are navigating apps. These modules execute tasks and these LAMs,

can learn basically any interface from any software regardless of which platform they are running on. So the large language model understand what you say but the large action model will get things done. So from words to action. And this really means that we have a computer that in addition what you're trying to say is actually help you to do things or get things done. You have the touchscreen

It's like a tiny touchscreen. You have a push to talk button. You have an analog scrolling kind of button. You have a microphone, you have speakers and you have a camera that like a 360 degree camera. They're saying that it's also 10 times faster than most of the other voice AI projects. You don't have a wake up word. You just click on the button and you can advise people.

which provider and services are available on your Rabbit R1. So for example, if you're using Spotify, you can just connect your Spotify account through your computer with the R1. That all happens on your computer with a certain app or software where you can do all these connections. And some of the examples that they showed in the presentation were super interesting. Like the first was

They ask, okay, so I want to go to London with my family. I have two young kids. I want to go from like 1st to 5th of February. Yeah, we like cheap but non-stop flights and nice hotels.

And then you could see how the R1 really prepared the single steps for you. You could approve or iterate. And then the R1 actually booked everything for you. So you didn't need to go through different steps, through different apps. So everything happened like the whole workflow basically happened in the background.

Super interesting from like task-based to intention-based interactions. So seeing that as a UX designer is fascinating to me. The R1 is not here to replace your phone. They also highlighted that and mentioned that. And I also agree. You still need your phone. You still need the apps. But it's an interesting direction in which we are heading at the moment. And the device, I think, really gives you a feeling of how the future of products might look like.

with natural language. And what I also can highly recommend to check out is their research section. Of course, they did a lot of research.

And they're sharing insights on how they train the model. You can see a lot of videos from people going through web pages, booking an Uber, ordering groceries, and they use that to train the model. So it was basically trained on a bunch of different apps and then abstract that away with a large language model and then simplifies the interface that it's just a voice.

Super interesting and I think definitely an intermediate step somehow because this device really shows how to operate apps itself or how apps can operate itself without you actually needing to do it. So the user doesn't need to do basically anything, just communicate with it. And the next step might be to remove the apps altogether. And when this happens, there are no apps.

Very interesting. So for us as UX designers, it shows a new way of interacting with technology. And when people ask me, like, how do I design AI products? Exactly this mindset. Don't think about, like, how can I integrate AI in a tiny part of a tiny feature, but really look back, zoom out and think about what is the task that the user wants to get done.

and then come up with an AI-enhanced workflow. This is the only way how we can do it and really rethink certain patterns, right? So, but also think about some cons or some things that are not so great about the R1. First of all,

I must say that I think the interface is first of all, very small that you can, it's better than nothing. It's better than the AI pin where you don't have an interface, only the projection on your hand. Pretty cool and sci-fi, but having an interface is still really nice.

I need to say that the interface doesn't look super accessible. The font that they chose looks fancy, 80s style, but not something that I would recommend someone for a web device or for a digital interface device. It's not easy to read.

Also, in some of the demos, you see that the font is really cut off. Not so great. Overall, I think the whole interface design, how they structured it, looks a little bit, I would say a little unprofessional and a little bit like something you would give a first semester designer who has never designed a screen, basically. Not a lot of hierarchies, very difficult to grasp.

to quickly look on it and see what's important. So there is definitely an area where they really need to improve. Also, I mean, they highlighted that they are not there to replace the phones. But still, when you think about the perfect scenario would be that you have both somehow, right? Because there are so many moments in time where you, for example, so just yesterday we parked our car somewhere

at an area a little bit outside of the city and we didn't have any cash. So we wanted to pay with an app, right? So we didn't have the app installed yet. So we needed to install it and then pay with the app for the parking. And if you only have your Rabbit R1 with you and forgot your phone or something like that,

You can't really do it because you haven't connected the app maybe with the R1 yet or you haven't installed it so you can't pay for it. So those tiny problems where you just need to quickly install an app where you just need to do something on your phone. So currently you would need to take both things with you like in one pocket the iPhone and the other pocket the rabbit R1. And sometimes you want to have visual images.

to just like browse through. For example, when you want to book your summer vacation through Airbnb. I personally, and I know a lot of users are the same, really want to get inspired by the images. Maybe want to have a selection that would be amazing because all tools or apps like Airbnb can be very overwhelming. But the visual part is super important.

So of course the first generation device. So people are of course very critical. Some people are also very hyped. I think it's important to have a look at like both sides. Definitely recommend to check it out. If I get the chance, I will also buy it. It's €199. So pretty affordable, I would say for a device like that. Really nice to have that like on your desktop next to you and just like use it in a day-to-day life basically.

I think where the future is heading to, this is just what I think. So like my personal assumption, I assume that Apple, I mean, they also publicly say that they're doing that, that Apple, Google, Amazon, they are working hard on improving Siri, on improving Alexa and integrating them in their phones. So I am pretty sure that in one of the next keynotes, Apple is going to introduce a new

way defined version of Siri that works very similarly. Because that would be ideal for us, right? If we would have this thing on our phones, well, we can choose, maybe we just want to go through the apps, want to inspire by some visuals, just want to scroll, get distracted. Or if we want to get things done quickly, right? Like

For example, yeah, automate certain tasks, right? I mean, when I'm going through my day, I have a lot of workflows that look the same. For example, first of all, I go through the emails. I check, did any of the clients wrote me an email? Then I'm answering them.

It would be amazing if I could add an automation that just like go through my emails, already flags me the important ones, sends them to me, pre-writes maybe even responses to it so that I just only need to check it. So all these automations, right, that are helpful that you can also do with the R1 can basically teach them your own automation. I haven't covered that. So maybe I will do another episode about teaching or creating automation.

But I think like generally this is probably where things are heading. So I'm pretty sure that also our phones are changing.

At some point, I'm sure that we won't have these apps, but apps are integrated in basically one system, like one large language model that uses the information in the background. And the apps are still there, but not as an interface for the user, basically. We're not there yet. At the moment, we are in like an intermediate state. So very exciting time.

Also, I linked some of the resources in the description box. In case you want to check that out, please do so. And I hope this was helpful to you and interesting.

And also want to mention, I am doing a free live webinar next Wednesday. It's about how to collaborate with AI as a designer. Feel free to sign up here. You don't need to pay for it. No money. You can sign up. I will add it in the description box. And then hopefully see you next Wednesday. Thank you so much for listening. Bye bye.

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