Former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, who is currently working on a new artificial intelligence hardware project with OpenAI, commented on attempts to launch similar solutions in 2023. In an interview with Bloomberg, he called the Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin examples of failed products.
"Those were very poor products," Ive said. "There has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products."
Aiwa's comments came amid news that his startup has been acquired by OpenAI. The deal is valued at $6.5 billion. The team plans to launch its own artificial intelligence device in 2026. By the way, according to the WSJ, it won't be a wearable gadget.
In response to Ive's words, Rabbit founder Jesse Liu called him his hero, but disagreed with the comparison to Humane: "This is a company that stopped fighting, was absorbed and closed down." He also acknowledged that the launch of Rabbit R1 was problematic, but the team continues to improve the product.
The Rabbit R1 continues to exist as a device despite criticism and a decline in interest. The company recently added a memory journal feature to preserve the context of interactions, and also opened up free access to its Intern system, a version of rabbitOS 2.0 that works even without the R1 itself.
As for Humane, it stopped supporting AI Pin in February after being acquired by HP.