Rabbit has signed its first partnership agreement for the R1 artificial intelligence device that dominated CES 2024. Perplexity AI, the "answer engine," will make its extensive language model and API available to the Rabbit OS, providing live data and answers to a wider range of queries.

Perplexity AI is quickly gaining popularity as an alternative to Google and Bing. It combines an AI chatbot with a search engine to provide answers to queries along with links to information sources. Currently available on iPhone, Android, and the web, it is a new approach to AI tools.

Rabbit R1 does not have an app that the user directly interacts with, but has access to other AI tools in the background. These services are used to enhance the default functionality of the Rabbit Large Action Model and provide data not otherwise available. According to Rabbit, Perplexity is the first of many partnerships.

The first 100,000 people who purchase Rabbit R1 will also get Perplexity Pro free for a year, with access to more advanced generative AI features and more detailed answers.

Rabbit has already sold out its first 50,000 units of the $199 R1, initially 10,000 at a time. The sixth round of 50,000 units is still expected to sell out quickly.

They will be shipped on a first-come, first-served basis, and those who purchase in the first lot will get them between May and June. Those who buy the sixth lot in the U.S. will get their R1s in June or July, while those in Europe will have to wait until August.

The R1 was already an impressive device. Designed by Teenage Engineering, the R1 packed a lot into a small and relatively inexpensive package.

Using Rabbit's large language model and its own patented large action model, it was able to perform real-world tasks from voice prompts.

For example, if a user asked it to plan a date, it would find a restaurant, reserve a table, send a message, and arrange an Uber to and from the destination.

Perplexity AI significantly improves the quality of responses, provides a broader knowledge set, and enables real-time queries about real-world events.

The AI startup explains: "Together, we are bringing real-time accurate answers seamlessly provided by the state-of-the-art PPLX online LLM API to Rabbit R1.

Most large-scale language models are trained up to a point, after which the knowledge is sealed before being released; OpenAI's GPT-4 has live data through last April, but supplements this with the ability to search the web using Bing.

Perplexity plans to do the same with Rabbit R1, supplementing the large language model built into Rabbit OS with a PPLX language model that continuously retrieves training data from the Internet.