Did Marques Brownlee Just Kill the Rabbit R1?

News

By RC Staff

01 May 2024

YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee recently released a new video on the Rabbit R1. After tearing apart the similar Human Labs AI Pin, viewers were waiting to see where Brownlee would fall on the R1. His review was not positive, although not nearly as harsh as the video on Humane Labs’s product. With the Rabbit R1 fulfilling orders by the day, many resellers that were hoping to turn a profit on the R1 are now worried. Will they remain profitable?

Marques Brownlee AI Assistant Reviews

First, a little backstory. Marques Brownlee is an American YouTuber that produces a wide variety of videos. Most of them revolve around tech in some way or another, and his videos reviewing new products are usually very popular.

Two weeks ago, Brownlee published a video reviewing the Humane Labs AI Pin, titled “The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed… For Now”

If you haven’t seen it already, give it a watch. Whether you’re interested in the product or not, it’s an entertaining video on its own, and there’s something cathartic about seeing a $700 product being ripped to shreds for failing to do basically anything.

When this video released, it caused huge waves on social media. AI-powered personal assistants have been a hot topic lately, and like most anything AI-related, they’ve been extremely polarizing.

Even without knowing much at all about the product, people are eager to take a side. Depending on who you listen to, the Humane Labs AI Pin is either the biggest product since the iPhone or an overpriced, underfunctional waste of engineering.

Brownlee’s video was a slam dunk for the detractors. Now they had a major figure agreeing with many of the points they’d been making.

Marques Brownlee and the Rabbit R1

The Rabbit R1 is a similar product to Humane’s AI Pin. We covered it an article a few weeks ago that you can read here, but resellers were able to double their money by flipping early preorders.

On Monday morning, Brownlee posted his review of the Rabbit R1. Everyone familiar with the product, especially resellers, were holding their breath.

What does he think? Well, it’s not a positive review. Feel free to watch if you’ve got a spare 20 minutes, but we’ll give you the TL;DR.

According to Brownlee, the Rabbit R1 struggles to be useful in a lot of the same ways as Humane’s AI Pin. Response times are slow, and AI’s tendency to confidently hallucinate makes it hard to trust the answers you get.

The R1 currently has four supported apps: Spotify, Uber, DoorDash and Midjourney. The R1’s “Large Action Model” that theoretically allows it to interface with any program like a human would is still in development. There’s a lot of potential here, but right now the Rabbit is kept on a tight leash.

Brownlee’s ultimate verdict is that this product and other AI assistants are the consequences of a “fix it later” mentality that’s become widespread.

Ouch. And while it’s definitely harsh, Brownlee still compares it favorably with Humane Labs AI assistant based on the price. While the Rabbit R1 is a one time purchase of $200, Humane Labs are asking a base price of $700 plus a monthly subscription to use their AI Pin.

When both products are just as useless, it makes the Rabbit a much better value.

Rabbit’s CEO Jesse Lyu responded to Brownlee’s video through Twitter, acknowledging the device and the tech behind it is still very young.

After Brownlee’s brutal takedown of the Humane Labs AI Pin, a lot of eyes were turned towards the R1. While the review definitely wasn’t positive, it also wasn’t a killing blow.

The Rabbit R1 on eBay

In our previous article on R1, we covered the resale market for these devices. Orders opened back in January, and the devices would ship in batches. The earlier you placed your order, the earlier you’d get your Rabbit.

The first batch started shipping last month. Batches after that would start rolling in the through the year, with orders placed today expected to reach customers in June.

Resellers have been making a ton of money by flipping the earliest preorders. When we first looked at it, Batch 1 preorders were reselling for beyond $400, meaning resellers were able to double their money on the R1.

Has Brownlee’s review fundamentally altered the market? Uh, no.

In the last 48 hours, the Rabbit R1 has actually been selling for higher than ever. We’ve seen a ton of $500+ sales following the review.

Please note that the majority of these sold devices are Batch 1 preorders that have shipped are ready to sell. Preorders from later batches have been falling in value over the last few weeks as Rabbit has stepped up their production.

If anything it seems like Brownlee’s review has stoked new interest in the Rabbit R1. As of right now the video has been seen over 3.5 million times. Who knows how many of those viewers are people who had never heard of the Rabbit until now.

Does it matter that it screws up your pizza orders, can’t hold a charge, and fires off random information with all the confidence of an unmedicated schizophrenic? Of course not, because it’s The Next Big Thing™, so get yours while you still can.

And subscribe to our newsletter while you’re at it. From bestselling video games to McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, we’ve got it all.