Rabbit, the company behind the R1 AI gadget revealed back at CES, announced that AI startup Perplexity would provide the large language model (LLM) powering the device’s interactions with people.
Perplexity, if you haven’t heard of it, is a San Francisco, California-based startup that wants to take on Google in the AI space and has even received investments from Nvidia and Jeff Bezos. Perplexity has a free smartphone app that focuses on answering questions by searching the web and sourcing information from relevant sites, similar to Microsoft’s Bing Chat. It uses the ‘Perplexity model’ based on GPT-3.5, and the advanced ‘copilot’ option uses GPT-4.
Based on X/Twitter posts from Rabbit and Perplexity, it sounds like Perplexity will be one of many LLM services available on R1. According to Engadget, Perplexity will power search on the device and seemingly will run alongside Rabbit’s ‘large action model’ (LAM). Rabbit detailed the LAM during the R1 reveal, which was trained to interact with existing app user interfaces, allowing R1 to complete tasks on behalf of users.
In case you were wondering:
Today we announced that we will use Perplexity as one of our key LLM services for r1 – and r1 still does not require any subscription to benefit from this partnership.
The $200 credit for Perplexity Pro is a standalone bonus kindly offered by… https://t.co/qYMM7TKFyZ
— rabbit inc. (@rabbit_hmi) January 19, 2024
Additionally, the first 100,000 Rabbit R1 purchasers will get one year of Perplexity Pro for free. Perplexity Pro grants additional functionality like file upload support, up to 300 complex queries per day, and the ability to select different AI models (like GPT-4, Claude 2.1, or Gemini). Rabbit says the free year of Perplexity Pro is a “standalone bonus” offered by Perplexity.
Rabbit’s R1 device was designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering. While it looks cool, I’m not convinced the R1 will overthrow the smartphone, especially since I could see the LAM approach easily being adopted onto smartphones in the future. That said, the LAM is ambitious and, if it works well, could mark a real turning point for AI, offering something useful to people rather than another chatbot requiring significant fact-checking.
That is, of course, if it lives up to the hype.
Header image credit: Rabbit
Source: Rabbit, Perplexity Via: Engadget
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
