rabbit inc. Raises Additional $10M to Launch First AI Hardware to Replace App-based Operating Systems (2024)

Business Wire

·4 min read

rabbit inc. Raises Additional $10M to Launch First AI Hardware to Replace App-based Operating Systems (1)

After announcing its $20M fundraising in October, rabbit has closed its Series A round led by Khosla Ventures to accelerate the development of rabbit's Large Action Model (LAM) and the upcoming device powered by LAM.

LOS ANGELES, December 21, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--rabbit inc.–an AI startup building the future of human-machine interface — announced today that it has raised a $10-million Series A round led by existing investor Khosla Ventures, bringing its total funding to $30 million.

rabbit will use the new funds to expand its headcount and rapidly develop its first standalone hardware – r1 – powered by rabbit OS, an operating system built on its proprietary foundation model, Large Action Model (LAM). The r1 device and rabbit OS will be officially unveiled on January 9, 2024 in an online launch event on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024) in Las Vegas.

"Throughout history, humans have always tried to create more intuitive tools," said rabbit Founder and CEO Jesse Lyu. "The current app-based operating system has been around for many years, but the way we interact with it – downloading hundreds of apps, fumbling through multiple pages and folders to find the app you want to use, requiring developers to tailor all these apps to various operating systems – has always been disjointed and cumbersome. The Large Action Model is the missing piece that will bring about a vastly improved way for humans to interact with technology and get things done faster than ever before."

First introduced in October, Large Action Model (LAM) both understands and acts upon human intentions in ways that Large Language Model-based programs like ChatGPT cannot. Unlike generative AI chatbots, LAM accomplishes tasks without the need for bespoke integrations like Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). LAM is designed to act on consumer applications, giving users the ability to accomplish tasks like booking tickets and ordering groceries from start to finish, in the same way that humans would do it.

"We dedicated a significant amount of the initial research effort on learning app interfaces and how humans interact with them. That is how the Large Action Model (LAM) was born," Lyu explained. "Our operating system, rabbit OS, powered by LAM, understands your intentions, automatically conducts research, operates various computer apps through interfaces, compiles and presents information, and ultimately accomplishes tasks for you."

To let LAM perform at its best, rabbit has created a first-of-its-kind mobile device loaded with rabbit OS that lets people use intuitive input methods to accomplish tasks in a tangible way. The new standalone device – r1 – eliminates the need for users to navigate multiple apps by having a LAM-powered AI operate the apps for them. The industrial design is co-developed by rabbit and Swedish company Teenage Engineering, one of the world’s leading innovators best known for its award-winning synthesizers and audio equipment.

Moreover, rabbit OS performs all tasks without the need for users to manually create new accounts or pay for additional subscriptions for those apps to access them in rabbit OS, providing a safe, secure and responsible way to accomplish more.

"LAM breaks the boundaries of existing app interfaces," says rabbit CTO Alexander Liao, formerly a Carnegie Mellon researcher specializing in machine learning. "Our technologies have enabled us to intelligently analyze information and take actions across multiple isolated apps in response to a natural language request, a feat that is rarely possible in existing operating systems. By utilizing neuro-symbolic techniques in the loop, it sits at the forefront of interdisciplinary scientific research in language modeling, programming languages, and formal methods," explained Liao.

"In a decade, we could have tens of billions more agents than people on the planet running around the net doing things on our behalf," said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. "The rabbit team is bringing powerful new consumer experiences for every human to have an agent in their pocket."

Headquartered in Los Angeles, rabbit was founded by a group of top-ranking Kaggle Grandmasters, ex-Google engineers and repeat-entrepreneurs with extensive experience in creating AI hardware and operating high-performance computing clusters. A two-time Y Combinator alumnus, rabbit’s Founder and CEO, Jesse Lyu, previously founded Raven Tech, a startup that pioneered conversational AI operating systems and was acquired by Baidu.

The virtual launch event of the rabbit r1 will take place on January 9, 2024. To receive information about the event, please register at https://www.rabbit.tech/waitlist.

For more information on rabbit and LAM, please visit https://www.rabbit.tech/research and follow the official rabbit account on X, https://twitter.com/rabbit_hmi.

About rabbit inc.

rabbit inc. is an AI startup developing a personalized operating system (OS) through a natural language interface and dedicated, affordable consumer hardware to host the OS. rabbit OS is capable of understanding complex user intentions, operating user interfaces, and performing actions on behalf of the user. The key technology powering rabbit OS is the Large Action Model (LAM), a new type of foundation model that understands human intentions on computers. The company is founded by a group of researchers, engineers, and repeat-entrepreneurs with extensive experience in creating AI hardware and operating high-performance computing (HPC) clusters to train large AI models.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231221415633/en/

Contacts

Ashley Baker
media@rabbit.tech

rabbit inc. Raises Additional $10M to Launch First AI Hardware to Replace App-based Operating Systems (2024)

FAQs

What is the rabbit R1 use case? ›

The Rabbit R1 can answer questions about the weather, pop culture, nearby points of interest and more -- similar to phone-based virtual assistants. But it has pros and cons compared to the digital helpers that live on our mobile devices, like Apple's Siri, for example.

Who is funding Rabbit R1? ›

Rabbit is funded to the tune of $30 million led by the billionaire Vinod Khosla's venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. Whoever can design the appropriate hardware form factor, these billionaires' line of thinking goes, will win big in the AI era.

How much is the rabbit R1? ›

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Can Rabbit R1 make phone calls? ›

Although it's not being positioned as a phone, you can certainly make phone calls with it since it has a SIM card slot along with Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. It runs on a 2.3Ghz MediaTek Helios P35 processor and has 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM.

Who owns Rabbit Tech? ›

Founded by Jesse Lyu, who holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Liverpool, and Alexander Liao, previously a researcher at Carnegie Mellon, Rabbit is creating a platform, Rabbit OS, underpinned by an AI model that can — so Lyu and Liao claim — see and act on desktop and mobile interfaces the ...

Who is the CEO of rabbit? ›

rabbit inc. Our CEO Jesse Lyu on This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis, discussing how r1's computer vision distills complex information on screens — like Discord chats.

Who funded rabbit Tech? ›

Key Bullet Highlights: $10 million Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures: rabbit inc.'s total funding reaches $30 million. Innovative r1 device and rabbit OS: Set to unveil at CES 2024, featuring the proprietary Large Action Model (LAM) for intuitive human-technology interaction.

Is Rabbit r1 real? ›

Rabbit OS and the Large Action Model (LAM) handle the rest. All you need to do is ask Rabbit r1 for what you want and it tries to deliver. That's the vision. The reality is an oddball product that doesn't do enough and is too slow to be more useful than an iPhone or your laptop.

Why isn't rabbit R1 an app? ›

According to Fast Company, Lyu also says his decision to make the Rabbit R1 a standalone device may be what his company needs to protect its unique AI model from being copied — and to distinguish itself in a crowded consumer market.

Is rabbit R1 Chinese? ›

Rabbit, US$200 AI-powered gadget, becomes unexpected hit after CES 2024 launch by Chinese entrepreneur.

Can rabbit R1 send text messages? ›

Basically, the Rabbit R1 performs tasks similarly to mobile apps, except it doesn't require a smartphone to work. Operating on the Rabbit OS, it allows a user to send messages, place calls, and access services like Spotify and Uber.

Is rabbit R1 good? ›

As per CNET, Rabbit R1 claims to do a lot of things that a smartphone can already do, but using it could be “also frustrating at times” due to several shortcomings, such as limited touch input access, and “absurdly fast” battery drain issues.

What is the spec of the rabbit R1? ›

Inside its teenage engineering-designed casing, r1 boasts a 2.3 GHz MediaTek Helio P35 processor, 4 GB of memory and 128 GB of storage, and a USB-C port. rabbit claims that the battery charge can last for a day too.

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