AI Gadgets and Why Siri Will Destroy Them All

Every time an AI gadget is announced, it steals the show, at least for a few weeks. Last year it was the Humane AI pin, this year at CES it was the Rabbit R1. But why do these awkward hardware accessories garner so much attention when the phone we already have is way more capable and powerful? I have a theory. It's because all these gadgets are playing on the one pain point every smartphone user can relate to. It's why automakers are trying to put chat GPT in their cars, why Humane thinks they c

an sell a $700 pin, why these at CES are selling AI powered pet collars and voice powered bidets. Yes, that's a real thing. It's this. The voice assistant you've had for over 12 years is still one of the most frustrating things to use on your phone. But even if all these AI gadgets can deliver on the promise of giving you a better voice assistant, they will still fail, but we'll get to why in a second. Whether you're talking about Android or iPhone, one of the common experiences is trying to get

the voice assistant to do something. Maybe play a song or add a reminder, and it takes multiple tries, fails, or... without explanation, or does something completely different than you intended. But for anyone who has used chat GPT and other large language models, it feels like magic having an app actually understand what you're asking and give you a reasonable answer back, even if it makes stuff up sometimes. I recently saw this TikTok where a person is asking a very long drawn-out question ab

out why money is different in different countries. Apple or Google's voice assistant would have little chance of understanding the question, let alone answering it. but asking chatgpt it knew ex- exactly what this person wanted. It sounds like you're curious about-- difference mainly comes down to the value of the currency. I even tried it. Here's what Siri did when I tried to have it answer the same long rambling question. Most times it just didn't do anything. And here's what Google Assistant

did. That ability for large language models to parse imperfect, incomplete, and even rambling questions and answer with something useful feels extraordinary. Compare that to the precise incantations you need to save for your HomePod to play the right song and even then it's a 50/50 chance at best it will get it right. I can't tell you how many times... I've tried to play the "Across the Spider-Verse" album from a home pod and failed. Even my kids recognize that in order to play this specific son

g by this specific artist, you need to leave out this word in the album title or say the artist's name a certain way. When you compare that to the seeming brilliance of chat GPT, the idea of having a handheld device with that level of sophistication and with really cool retro hardware design from teenage engineering, it seems like a dream. But in the end, all these gadgets are likely going to fail. Not because the AI isn't smart enough. or the hardware isn't cool, but all Apple has to do is make

their voice assistant act more like chat GPT, and now that one pain point of using the device you already have in love is gone. Take Humane's AI pin for example, cool looking hardware developed by X Apple engineers, and I'm seeing it advertised everywhere. But Humane is trying to position the pin as an eventual phone replacement. You can even text people from it. To be clear, that will never happen. I'll give you two scenarios the phone wins every time. You're in a show, movie, or in a place yo

u can't talk, but you need to text your significant other. The AI pin is a non-starter. Your only option is to dictate a text, the phone wins. Or you would like turn-by-turn directions on an actually easy-to-read screen, the phone wins again. Or maybe you'd like to do a video call with a loved one, phone wins. So what about the latest showstopper, the Rabbit R1? This has more promise with a screen and camera built in, but the entire large action model is based off the device using third-party ap

ps for you, and from this image it seems like you'll need to connect those apps to the rabbit through a web portal not only will those services likely disconnect periodically and if you didn't have your phone you would be up a creek but ordering food delivery it would sure be nice to see an image heavy app like door - on a big high-resolution screen phone wins again or maybe you just arrived at a concert and need to pay for parking only you haven't downloaded the park mobile app and connected it

to the rabbit r1 yet well guess what your phone can download any app anytime pay for parking and you're on your way. I get that the Rabbit R1 is-- promising an easier and faster experience by asking its assistant to work the apps for you, but it goes back to the one pain point all these gadgets are playing, the voice assistant. If your iPhone, which already has those same apps installed, had a voice assistant powerful enough to understand your imperfect request and do the thing you intended, ev

en if that's not exactly what you said, there's no reason for these other gadgets to exist. Plus, if the goal is to use your phone less, but still be connected to your friends and family, access a voice assistant and play music or podcasts, be a device that does all of that really well. It's this, the Apple Watch. Like my co-host on Primary Technology said, my new tech podcast, links down below. - You know, the rumored large language model it makes Siri actually better. I feel like the Apple Wat

ch then becomes like the killer accessory to kill all of these things. Not just killer accessory and like it's great. It's like gonna kill all of these things. So I think it's really interesting. I'm glad there's companies that are making this sort of thing that are sort of pushing the envelope. - And once Apple takes its voice assistant to the next level, and on the Watch too. We know Apple has been working on AI tools internally, even large language models. Google is updating their voice assis

tant to include Bard, their large language model, and Microsoft is literally swapping one of their Windows keys on PCs with Copilot, their chat GPT powered assistant. This June at WWDC, we could potentially see Apple announced iOS 18 with a completely new version of, you know who, based on large language machine learning or whatever Apple wants to call it. And if that happens, these stand-- let alone AI devices won't have a unique selling point anymore. They will all just be underpowered, screen

less, and ecosystem-less, really cool-looking gadgets. And once Apple really pushes into the generative AI and LLM space, the possibilities are endless. I recently did a video about the potential of an Apple generative AI, like being able to create keynote slides from some bullet points and pages, or AI tools in Final Cut to transcribe what you're editing, switch between active speakers in a multicam clip, and more. Apple already has that with Autopod, and Final Cut has some AI-feeling features,

like remove background from video, and remove background is also across the entire system. Tap and hold on a subject on your phone, and you can lift it or copy and paste. There could also be generative text tools in Mail, Notes, and Pages, AI summarizing tools in Safari when using Safari Reader, or what I would love, an AI assistant in Shortcuts to help build the perfect automation. That would be pretty sweet, Apple. Just saying. Also, when thinking about the Rabbit R1 working apps for me, I'm

the kind of person that screen from the app I'm ordering from, whether that's buying something from Amazon or making a reservation with OpenTable. When you use those apps on your iPhone you get to see the confirmation from that app with your own eyes. Often I'll jump over to my email just to double check that everything went through properly. Maybe that's overkill confirming everything, but if all that was hidden behind the rabbit's large action model that's adding a layer of potential error. Th

e same is true with the AI pin where you have to trust that it did the thing you asked. Maybe there's an audible confirmation. But I'd like to know if my AI was hallucinating or not. That doesn't mean I don't want to try these gadgets. I pre-ordered a humane AI pin, although it seems I may be in a small group with their announcements of layoffs. And I'd love to play around with the Rabbit R1, but the phone isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Let me know what you think down in the comments. I'll p

ut a couple videos up here that you should probably check out. This one has the best devices from CES this year. And don't forget to subscribe to this channel before you go. Hit that like button and thank you for watching. I'll see you next time.