The Launch of the Rabbit R1 Companion Device Caused Quite a Stir at CES 2024 with the initial batches totaling 10,000 devices selling out within hours. The beginning of 2024 saw several predictions that AI would become more embedded in consumer tech devices by year's end. One particular new device, the Rabbit R1 "pocket companion", seems to fulfill this prediction ahead of schedule. However, its unusual product launch may have caused more confusion than excitement. Key Highlights - The device has a tactile, retro design with push-to-talk button, far-field mic, and rotating camera - Created by startup Rabbit OS which aims to compete with tech giants on consumer AI devices - Marketed as having its own AI operating system rather than just a virtual assistant - Launched at CES 2024 for $199 with no required subscription - 30-minute launch keynote video explaining capabilities - Cryptic promotional video showcasing the device itself without explaining functionality - Capa
Recent years have witnessed astonishing progress in generative image modeling, with neural network-based models able to synthesize increasingly realistic and detailed images. This rapid advancement is quantitatively reflected in the steady decrease of Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) scores over time. The FID score measures the similarity between generated and real images based on feature activations extracted from a pretrained image classifier network. Lower FID scores indicate greater similarity to real images and thus higher quality generations from the model. Around 2020, architectural innovations like BigGAN precipitated a substantial leap in generated image fidelity as measured by FID. BigGAN proposed techniques like class-conditional batch normalization and progressive growing of generator and discriminator models to stabilize training and generate higher resolution, more realistic images compared to prior generative adversarial networks (GANs). The introduction of BigGAN and