When the Rabbit R1 arrived earlier this year, it was an unfinished product. Engadget’s own Devindra Hardawar called it “a toy that fails at almost everything.” Most of the features Rabbit promised, including its signature “large action model” (LAM), were either missing at launch or didn’t work as promised. Now, after more 20 software updates since the spring, Rabbit is releasing its most substantial update yet. Starting today, every R1 user now has beta access to teach mode, a feature that allows you to train Rabbit’s AI model to automate tasks for you on any website you can visit from your computer.
Rabbit CEO and founder Jesse Lyu gave me a demo of teach mode ahead of today’s announcement. The tool is accessible through the company’s Rabbithole hub, and features a relatively simple interface for programming automations. Once logged into your Rabbit account, you navigate to a website and input your credentials if they’re required to access the service you want to teach the R1 to use for you. Lyu was quick to note Rabbit won’t store any username and password you input; instead, the company saves the cookie from your teach mode session for the R1 to use later. In June, Rabbit had to move quickly to patch a security issue that could have led to a serious data breach.
Once you’ve named your automation and written a description for it, all you need to do is carry out the task you want to automate as you usually would. Rabbit’s software will translate each click and interaction into instructions the R1 can later carry out on its own. When Lyu demoed teach mode for me, he taught his R1 to tweet for him.