Wired reports that Jesse Liu doesn't think the Rabbit R1 is a failure. Liu's device was one of the first in a rush to create specialized AI hardware that acted as a virtual assistant. R1 could be used to speak and ask it to perform tasks, such as ordering a taxi or food through DoorDash. After its buzzy launch at CES 2024, the device received harsh criticism, with WIRED rating it a 3 out of 10. All agent-related features on the R1 didn't perform as well as expected. Since then, the capabilities of AI assistants have improved significantly, and now this technology is at the peak of popularity. So Rabbit raises the question again. On Tuesday, the company announced OS3, an independent "agent operating system" designed to run across multiple screens. It is also available as a software update for the R1 device, although an R1 is not required to use it. Instead, you can access OS3 through a web browser on your desktop, Telegram on your phone, or even iMessage. It's a notable turnaround for a company that once championed portable hardware rather than smartphone apps, but the environment for such software
I'm ripe. Agents that perform tasks for you are currently a hot topic in Silicon Valley. Meta's new Muse agent has just been banned from scanning Amazon for purchases on behalf of a user using a virtual machine. Liu mentions this with a grin, saying, "We already went through this a year and a half ago," referring to R1's controversial use of a virtual machine to perform application actions on your behalf. So was Rabbit simply too ahead of its time? Liu claims that from a financial perspective, Rabbit R1 has been extremely successful, especially considering that the company does not offer subscriptions to its AI features, unlike many competitors. He claims the company has sold more than 100,000 of the orange-red devices designed by Teenage Engineering worldwide, with a return rate of less than 5 percent, and earned approximately 45-50 percent margins on the equipment. Jessie Liu, Rabbit's CEO and founder, says, “From an engineering perspective, we didn't make the wrong choice. I think the problem was that we had extremely limited resources, both in terms of team and money, compared to other AI studios, which
that have raised billions of dollars." He says Rabbit has raised about $60 million in total and currently has 15 employees. But after poor reviews of the R1's launch, the company had to make tough decisions. Rabbit decided not to expand the team and stay small, but things were tough around this time last year. The planned launch in India was halted due to regulation, putting the company in financial trouble, so that several employees went on strike and said they were not getting paid. Liu says he respects their decision, adding that the company has secured additional funding and is now on a stronger footing. “The company is doing well,” he says. Liu says the team decided to take its time with new hardware and focus on providing software updates to improve the R1 experience. To date, Liu says Rabbit has released about 50 updates over the past year and a half. He points to a dedicated Discord community of over 12,000 users who provide feedback on what new features to add to R1, such as the ability to integrate
OpenClaw or Hermes AI agents instead of using Rabbit's own models. “Today, if you look at our R1 device, it is completely different from what it was on day one,” he says. “We have become more open; the device is yours, you decide what to do with it.” And rumor has it that people are still buying the R1 right now. Liu held up his phone screen to his webcam to show me four or five orders that had come in that morning for the R1, sold through the Rabbit website. (He notes that this does not include sales data from Amazon, Target or Best Buy, where the R1 is also available.) At this point, Rabbit no longer produces the R1, and existing inventory is dwindling. The company is focusing on the new OS3 software platform, which is designed to run on other hardware you already have. If you have R1, you can use it as an I/O device for OS3. Liu says Rabbit has no plans for an R2. Instead, he describes the next hardware release, due within "a few months," as the Cyberdeck, a dedicated "rumble coding" machine that will run OS3. So what?
what OS3? Liu describes it as an open, cross-platform agent system that runs on devices you already own. The platform lives in the cloud but connects directly to desktop software, files and web pages through a local agent that you install on Windows, Mac or Linux. Using Rabbit DLAM (Direct Large Action Model) technology, it can perform local programming tasks and autonomously write and debug code. One account can connect up to five devices, with OS3 determining which device should be used to perform a specific task. The interface presents a single, continuous flow of conversation—no sidebar of disparate topics. Liu repeatedly calls it a “brain drain” interface: insert your intent, and the system coordinates the models and tools needed to complete the task. It supports universal skill interoperability - paste a public URL for any third-party agent into a chat, and OS3 can install it automatically without requiring users to have any technical knowledge. Rabbit uses a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) approach to running OS3. No monthly subscription, but useful
Vendors provide their own API keys from providers such as OpenAI or Anthropic, or link local open source models. Liu uses OS3 to perform a variety of tasks. For example, he says suppliers send him a weekly Excel report on R1 sales. He checks it on his phone, but always returns to his PC to open the document and manually add the data to the main table. But with OS3, since the Rabbit agent is deployed on his PC, he can send a message via Telegram on his phone asking it to perform a task and it will complete the routine action. Just recently, Liu was getting ready for a video shoot that would take up most of his day. This meant it wouldn't be available on Slack. So he asked OS3 to represent him on Slack, and the agent allegedly had a 50-minute conversation with the engineer (he introduced himself as Agent Liu, so the engineer was in the know) and was even able to access files on Liu's computer to help answer the engineer's questions. Rabbit claims that the local agent does not store, copy or sell data. Although conversations and memory logs are stored on Rabbit servers, the contents of the files remain on your computer
e. There is a caveat, however: when a problem requires model reasoning, the appropriate hints pass through Rabbit's servers to your model provider, who then processes that data on their terms. Anyone can try OS3 starting today, quietly refuting the premise that brought Rabbit to the forefront in 2024. It turns out that people never needed another device in their pocket to communicate with AI. They already have the best tool for the job. The material was prepared by a neural network based on the original publication. AI may make mistakes in details (numbers, names, dates, quotes) - for important information, check with the original source. Tata Elxsi creates a platform for detecting risks in factories Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 5.5 with new security measures SpeakON introduced a magnetic button with voice input for the iPhone. Snorkel AI raised $350 million and increased its valuation to $3.5 billion. Trane Technologies reduced HVAC diagnostic time from 20 minutes to 20 seconds using AI.
