Founders of rabbit r1, a supposed competitor to the smartphone, are additionally behind the launch of a failed NFT venture that they’re reportedly hiding from the net.
The $200 rabbit r1 was created by CEO Jesse Lyu and billed because the ‘way forward for human-machine interface.’ Nevertheless, its modern design and funky scrolling weren’t sufficient to woo techies and the machine was roundly criticized on launch.
Now rabbit r1’s unfavorable reception has introduced consideration to Lyu’s prior work on a failed NFT venture referred to as Gama. Lyu was CEO of Gama’s father or mother firm, Cyber Manufacture Co., earlier than it rebranded to rabbit Inc. in October 2023.
Gama claimed to be a ‘premium’ space-themed 3D platformer that included NFTs and was pitched in 2022 because the metaverse of the longer term. Nevertheless, barely two years later, the Gama.io area now not works and the positioning can solely be considered through the Wayback Machine web archive.
One put up on X from AI advocate Andy Parackal claims that the Gama group has been deleting each YouTube video involving rabbit’s CEO. Thankfully, Parackal says he recorded considered one of Lyu’s interviews earlier than it was wiped.
He mentioned, “We bought your complete video; these guys are whole grifters. I’ve been saying from day one which these guys are sketchy… They’re attempting to delete every thing concerned with Gama NFTs.”
Certainly the Gama YouTube channel does include movies referring to the Gama venture, however nothing together with Lyu.
Aaron Li, who claims to have constructed the technical methods behind Gama, instructed Parackal he wasn’t instructed to delete something and that Parackal “could also be overreacting.”
Rabbit Inc. CEO’s NFT historical past provides to rising complaints
The rabbit r1 depends on AI to carry out varied duties its creators hoped would get rid of the necessity to scroll forwards and backwards between a number of apps. But it surely’s been met with rising criticism.
Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee mentioned in a evaluation that the rabbit r1’s AI “hallucinates” and “confidently solutions questions improper.” He calls its battery life “brutally unhealthy,” describes its scroll perform as “tremendous sluggish,” and complains about its restrictive contact display screen.
Learn extra: What it was prefer to have Quontic Financial institution’s metaverse pool occasion all to myself
The Verge additionally reported that rabbit r1’s working system isn’t as distinctive from apps as rabbit Inc. makes out. Certainly, somebody is reportedly operating rabbit’s launcher as an Android app on a Google Pixel 6A.
In response, rabbit instructed The Verge, “rabbit r1 isn’t an Android app… rabbit OS and LAM run on the cloud with very bespoke AOSP and decrease degree firmware modifications, subsequently an area bootleg APK with out the right OS and Cloud endpoints gained’t be capable of entry our service. rabbit OS is personalized for r1 and we don’t help third-party purchasers.”
A full response could be discovered on its X account.
Protos has emailed rabbit Inc. for extra details about Jesse Lyu’s NFT venture and the reported deletion of movies and can replace this piece if we hear again.
