Rabbit Teases Redesigned R1 UI After Design God Jony Ive Dumps on AI Gadgets
By now, everyone on Earth is aware that ex-Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have the biggest bromance going on, and they couldn't keep the secret to themselves anymore. Nobody outside of OpenAI and io, Jony's AI startup that the ChatGPT maker acquired for $6.5 billion, really knows what their AI device (or family of AI-powered devices) looks like or how it works. We have guesses and hints from people supposedly in the know, but nothing concrete has surfaced. What we're certain of is that Ive thinks the current batch of AI gadgets—Humane's now-dead Ai Pin and Rabbit's R1—are 'very poor products.'
Sir Alu-mini-um Ive might be right, or maybe he'll eat his words. Despite watching Humane stumble over and over, and then eventually sell its IP to HP, Rabbit has (for now) seemingly defied death with consistent feature additions and software improvements to the brightly colored R1. The startup's been pushing out update after update since the R1 launched in April 2024, and now it's teasing a revamped UI that could give the toy-like AI gadget a much-needed second boost.
On X, Rabbit shared what is presumably an all-new UI for the R1 featuring a card-based design. It reminds me a lot of the Wallet app on iPhone. The new interface is more colorful and better surfaces many of the new features that Rabbit has added over the past year. As somebody who has kept up with the updates and uses the R1 regularly (when it's not dead from idling), I'm digging how Rabbit is leaning into the more whimsical and fun UI. Rabbit founder and CEO, Jesse Lyu, told me post-R1 launch that the device is supposed to be a 'Tamagotchi-Pokédex-walkie-talkie' device. I'd say it's getting closer to that. The addition of the 'r-cade,' a digital gashapon-like way to gamify interactions with the R1 in exchange for 'carrots' that can be used to redeem accessories for your Rabbit AI chatbot, already made it more toy-like. This new coat of paint seems to really drive that point home—it's an AI gadget, but it's not that serious. It's not killing phones, and it's not going to bring about some revolution to how we use computers. But it is at least a fun little AI gadget that could act as a gateway to more AI and agentic applications.
the future looks bright pic.twitter.com/OgkJF8dXps
— rabbit inc. (@rabbit_hmi) May 22, 2025
The only sticking point, however, may still be the $199 price. Yes, the R1 doesn't come with a subscription fee like the Humane Ai Pin did, and it's now even available to buy from Amazon, but $199 may be just a bit too much for a toy, especially in this economy. Rabbit has not said whether it plans to release an updated R1 with faster hardware. I think it needs to, unless there's some serious software optimization happening with the new UI. One of the most annoying aspects of using the R1 is that it doesn't feel responsive enough. The current R1 UI lags when using the scroll wheel, and selecting and navigating the menu system is more cumbersome than it should be. It's hard to say whether the blame falls on the mechanical wheel or the fact that the device uses a really weak MediaTek Helio P35 chip with 4GB of RAM. I'm really hoping the new UI makes using the AI gadget literally smoother.
Not everyone will agree with me, but I remain bullish on AI gadgets like the R1. They're niche—and sure, I could use my phone to fire up ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity—but I also like fun, toy-like gadgets. I love to root for an underdog that's working with small design and engineering teams. I also find it admirable that despite Jony Ive dumping on the R1, Lyu, doesn't seem butthurt. He still reveres Ive as his 'hero' and says that he welcomes all competition, 'whether it's from big companies or startups.' ChatGPT and Gemini very much destroy the R1, but my phone is nowhere near as fun to use. The same way I enjoy fiddling with Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operators instead of tapping on a MIDI phone app to make music, or using an instant camera like the Polaroid Flip. My phone can do all of these things, but my phone also doesn't give a damn about sucking me down endless TikTok rabbitholes.
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