Rabbit Brings "Teach Mode" to the R1, Lets You Show Its "AI Agents" How It's Done

Rabbit, creator of the R1 "Pocket Companion" that allows you to interact with an artificial intelligence (AI) platform without having to pull your phone out of your pocket, has announced a new string to its device's bow: "Teach Mode," which lets users automate almost anything with AI agents — starting with website interactions.

"All the best car manufacturers compete over their engines, but when electric cars came out, they didn't even need an engine to run. We shouldn't carry the burden of previous operating systems into the current systems," Jesse Lyu, Rabbit founder and chief executive officer, claims of his company's approach to developing the device, which runs the company's custom app atop a locked-down Android operating system. "A developer ecosystem is crucial to the success of an operating system, and teach mode is that missing link, giving people the power to create their own custom agents."

Initial reviews of the R1, which is inspired by Panic's well-received Playdate handheld console, were poor — ranging from complaints about promised features being absent or non-functional to poor performance and a failure to deliver on the promise of a gadget smart enough to take over tasks that would otherwise need your phone. The company has been releasing a stream of updates since launch, to address both these and a number of security issues, with the Teach Mode beta arriving in the latest.

Teach Mode, the company explains, "learns" how to perform a task by observing users. These tasks can then be recalled and replayed to automate a given task — going beyond a simple macro recorder by being able to alter the task in small ways. This, however, is tempered by Rabbit's admission that "the teaching function may require trial and error to achieve the desired results," and that it plans to "collect feedback from users to rapidly improve both teaching and replaying functionality."

Teach Mode is available to all Rabbit R1 users now, in beta form, on the Rabbithole web portal; more information is available on the company's website.