Hello Reader, welcome to Thursday!

There’s some exciting new tech today called the Rabbit r1.

And Duolingo is ditching humans and going hard on AI!

Here is what you need to know about AI today.

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New Tech

AI-powered “Rabbit r1” looks incredible!

There’s a new AI tech startup on the block. Rabbit Inc. unveiled its first mobile device at CES 2024 - the Rabbit r1 and it looks pretty amazing.

Why the r1 is different

The r1 is a fully self-contained device running on its own language model. With a push-to-talk button, you use the device like a walkie-talkie and get responses within 500ms. Take that GPT-4!

The device has a touchscreen, 360 rotational camera, and that push-to-talk button I mentioned already. It is capable of responding and searching to pretty much anything, almost instantaneously.

The camera can be used for computer vision - eg - point it at what’s in the fridge at ask it for some recipes.

I highly recommend watching the entire announcement below to see what this thing can do!

How much is it?

It’s going to be $199, or £159, with no monthly subscription on top. That’s an attractive price for a curious-looking piece of tech with a lot of potential. The device will supposedly launch in late March in the US and later in the year everywhere else.

Our View:

The r1 looks really cool - like what Siri was promised to deliver, finally being possible. It continues to beg the question though - will devices that require us to talk to them ever become mainstream? Be honest, you’d be embarrassed to use this thing in public, wouldn’t you?

Vote for live results and see results + opinions from yesterday at the bottom of the email.

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AI TECHNOLOGY

Duolingo goes BIG on AI

Language learning app Duolingo is going hard on AI - by replacing a number of its workforce with AI.

The app has over 500M registered users, and has been slowly and steadily rolling out AI.

Translation and AI… a match made in heaven?

When it comes to translation and lesson planning AI really excels. Duolingo probably couldn’t believe their luck when AI started to take off.

If you’ve ever used ChatGPT for a language lesson (highly recommend this) - you’ll know what I mean.

What better medium for learning is there than a 24/7 chatbot capable of unique conversations every time - and at any level of ability!

Bad for workers?

In the last year, Duolingo has quietly gotten rid of 10% of its contractors who wrote and translated lessons.

Workers are particularly unhappy as they claim they were told they would not be replaced by AI - only for that to happen. They also claim the quality of the lessons has decreased, with AI alone not enough to make a strong lesson.

Will this help or hinder Duolingo in the long term?

Our View:

Honestly, after using ChatGPT to practice, you won’t miss Duolingo anyway - AI-powered language learning is the future.

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