A controller for your phone

Happy Hump Day! Here’s a joke for you: Why do Java programmers have to wear glasses?

Because they don’t C#....I’ll see myself out. 

Here’s the news: 

🔋 Microsoft has discovered a new battery material – thanks to AI.

🤖 Quora has raised $75m from a16z to grow its AI chatbot Poe.

📹 Elon Musk is now claiming that X will be a video-first platform.

Scrolling, pinching, swiping, and long-pressing have all become habitual for humans when it comes to interacting with mobile devices and apps. It’s nearly instinct. 

One company wants to change that. Rabbit Inc. launched a $199 AI-powered consumer device called the R1 at CES yesterday with the goal of making app interactions obsolete. 

Designed in partnership with Teenage Engineering, the R1 looks kind of like a Playdate console. It comes with a rotating camera for taking photos, a scroll wheel that you use to interact with the device's AI (iPod vibes), and a 2.88-inch touchscreen display. 

Where the magic happens, though, is what’s inside. The company’s software, Rabbit OS, uses a “Large Action Model” (LAM), a new type of foundation model that understands human intentions on computers. Rabbit's AI is like training rabbits to understand how a humans interact with apps in order to replicate it.

Rabbit OS can control your music, order a pizza, call a taxi, send an email, and more through its relatively simple interface. It’s a standalone companion, but it’s not designed to replace your phone – yet. 

It’s even got a training mode. Say you want it to understand Figma. You can log in to its dedicated web portal, boot up a virtual machine, and start training your new AI friend how to detach an instance. 

The R1 is available for pre-order and starts shipping in March. The only question now is…

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