It’s a piece of hardware that’s not quite a phone, but will do many of the things your phone does, only in a very different way.

Running on the R1 is Rabbit OS, an AI operating system that contains what the company describes as a “large action model”, as opposed to the large language models that power ChatGPT and Bard.

The Rabbit model has been trained, not on words, but on apps. It knows how to operate all sorts of different apps the way a universal infrared remote control knows how to operate all sorts of TVs and air-conditioners.

Rabbit’s idea is that, rather than, say, opening an app and ordering an Uber on your phone, you speak to your R1 and ask it to order an Uber for you. Its model, having been trained on the Uber app, knows what APIs it has to access on the internet, and calls your car.

Ditto all your other apps. One simple voice interface to all your common tasks.

The R1, or perhaps the Rabbit model in some other device, really could change the way you use mobile phones. Hell, it might even replace your mobile phone one day.

Or, just like so many other things announced at CES this year, it could disappear down a rabbit hole and never be seen again. Who knows?

Samsung Ballie, LG Q9

Speaking of disappearing, Samsung’s Ballie AI robot vanished completely after it was first shown off at CES in 2020, only to emerge again in 2024 with a new set of wheels and a new coat of AI paint.

Like the Q9 robot LG also launched at CES this year, the Ballie uses AI to provide a roving interface to all sorts of other devices around the house, such as WiFi-controlled TVs, speakers, air-conditioning or lighting.

The robots follow you or your pets around the home, use their cameras and their microphones to sense your mood and wellbeing, and then make suggestions about things in your diary or around your home that might be tweaked to make you happier.

Feeling sleepy? How about we dim the lights? Feeling sick? How about we cancel your tickets to the game, and turn on the TV and the heater instead?

Or, maybe not. Just as the original Ballie was never actually released as a product, the latest generation of LG and Samsung robots aren’t so much products as suggestions. This is what life might be like if you had an AI rolling around your house, getting under your feet.

Swarovski AX Visio

If pie-in-the-sky AI isn’t your thing, then how about birds-in-the-sky AI?

Swarovski Optik, the telescopes and binoculars branch of the luxury Austrian glassmaker, has announced a real pair of binoculars that uses real AI to identify real birds in real time in real life. And this product, you really can buy, at least in Europe where it’s €4600 ($7538).

The AX Visio has a built-in AI system that’s been trained on the Merlin Bird ID database of 9000 bird species. At the twist of a dial, you can switch it to mammal mode, dragonfly mode or butterfly mode, and use its AI to identify whatever it is you’re looking at.

The name of the critter will come up inside the binoculars, overlaid on your view, together with the degree of certainty the AI has about its results. Remember, AI is non-deterministic, meaning it’s only ever guessing.

The binoculars have a number of non-AI features, too, like a compass overlay, or a sharing overlay that uses arrows to point someone in the right direction when they’ve just been handed the binoculars and told to look at something in the distance.

Seer Grills Perfecta

Seer Grills, a cooking technology start-up from the UK, says its Perfecta barbeque grill is the world’s first AI-powered grill (a claim that seems likely to be true), giving you “chef-level results in as little as 90 seconds” (a claim that would need some serious testing).

The grill uses machine learning to figure out the correct initial settings for whatever hunk of meat you stick in it, then keeps on using machine learning to learn through trial and error exactly how you like your meat cooked.

Seer Grills says the BBQ has sensors that calculate the thickness of the meat, and runs that data, together with temperature data, into its quad-core NeuralFire processor to calculate how close the meat should be to the heat, and for how long, to achieve the result you’ve requested on the BBQ’s touch screen or in its app.

The “90 seconds” part of the pitch arises from the non-AI feature of the grill, which are the two infrared burners that cook both sides of the steak at the same time. Seer Grills claims the burners cook at 900 degrees, meaning the device should be good for pizza as well as searing a steak.

John Davidson was in Las Vegas as a guest of Hisense.