The R1 is a bright-orange chunk of a device, with a camera, a mic, and a small screen. Press and hold its single button, ask it a question or give it a command using your voice, and the cute bouncing rabbit on screen will perk up its ears, then talk back to you.
When I finally got back to my hotel room, I turned on the R1's camera and held up a cold slice of pizza. 'What am I looking at?' I asked. 'You are looking at a slice of pizza,' the voice told me. 'It looks appetizing and freshly baked.' (Well, no.) I decided to try something else.
Until now, consumer AI has largely been defined by software: chatbots such as ChatGPT or the iPhone's souped-up autocorrect. Now we are experiencing a thingification: Companies are launching and manufacturing actual bits of metal and plastic that are entirely dedicated to AI features.
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