A walkie-talkie style gadget with an in-built chatbot is being hailed as the ‘iPhone of artificial intelligence‘.

The Rabbit r1 carries out everyday tasks for the owner, from asking a simple question to planning and booking a whole holiday.

The distinctive orange gadget was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, known for showcasing the future of technology.

Its release sounds the starting gun for the race to create a physical handheld device for chatbots, allowing people to get a digital assistant to do things for them as they go about their daily business.

What’s more, it only costs £159 – a fraction of the price of rival devices including Humane’s AI pin, which recently went on sale for £550. 

A walkie-talkie style gadget with an in-built chatbot is being hailed as the ' iPhone of artificial intelligence'

A walkie-talkie style gadget with an in-built chatbot is being hailed as the ‘ iPhone of artificial intelligence’

The R1 – which is now available on pre-order - has a rotating camera to take photos and for video calls a 2.88-inch touchscreen, and a big button that also acts as a scroll wheel

The R1 – which is now available on pre-order – has a rotating camera to take photos and for video calls a 2.88-inch touchscreen, and a big button that also acts as a scroll wheel

The gadget works by taking control of all the owner’s online accounts, requiring them to sign in and give access to all their profiles on apps such as Uber and Deliveroo.

US start-up Rabbit said it would always ask for permission and clarification when carrying out any task, particularly those involving payment. 

In a keynote address, founder Jesse Lyu demonstrated the device by asking it to design him an itinerary for a trip to London and booking the trip.

The idea behind it is to stop people having to scroll through hundreds of different apps on their smartphone – and instead provide one big super app.

The R1 – which is now available on pre-order – has a rotating camera to take photos and for video calls a 2.88-inch touchscreen, and a big button that also acts as a scroll wheel.

Several tech start-ups are racing to create a physical device for AI chatbots, with investors banking on winning big if they back the right gadget. 

The Rabbit is the first to create a handheld device for them, similar to a smartphone.

It is far cheaper than other similar AI-enable day-to-day products, such as Meta’s £245 Rayban smart glasses with built-in chatbot and the £550 Humane AI pin, a brooch like device that projects a screen with a digital assistant on to your hand.

US start-up Rabbit said it would always ask for permission and clarification when carrying out any task, particularly those involving payment

US start-up Rabbit said it would always ask for permission and clarification when carrying out any task, particularly those involving payment

It is far cheaper than other similar AI-enable day-to-day products, such as Meta's £245 Rayban smart glasses with built-in chatbot and the £550 Humane AI pin (pictured), a brooch like device that projects a screen with a digital assistant on to your hand

It is far cheaper than other similar AI-enable day-to-day products, such as Meta’s £245 Rayban smart glasses with built-in chatbot and the £550 Humane AI pin (pictured), a brooch like device that projects a screen with a digital assistant on to your hand

Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, is also reportedly already in talks to design a separate hardware product for the digital assistant with Apple’s former design chief behind the iPhone, Jony Ive.

He has previously however said the company behind ChatGPT was only taking small steps towards giving AI tools the power to take actions in the real world.

Experts have warned however that the trend to giving chatbots so much power however leaves users at risk.

A paper published recently by the Center for AI Safety warned: ‘AI agents can be given goals such as winning games, making profits on the stock market, or driving a car to a destination.

‘AI agents therefore pose a unique risk: people could build AIs that pursue dangerous goals.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk

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