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Their "keynote" just screams shenanigans. It's the most blatantly fake product demo I have ever seen. To take one example, at 14m30s, the CEO is shown using th

Their "keynote" just screams shenanigans. It's the most blatantly fake product demo I have ever seen. To take one example, at 14m30s, the CEO is shown using the device to book a trip to London. This is presented as a live demo, but it's clearly simulated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wlLy7hKP4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wlLy7hKP4

qingcharles 2y ago
I remember the CEO of Nokia showing off their latest phone on stage at Mobile World one year, live in front of the world's assembled press. Little did he know two developers were sweating their nuts off as everything on his screen was coming from an old PC stuffed in a closet in a bedroom thousands of miles away, fed down a ratty cable modem.
maxsilver 2y ago
Fun tidbit: There's a point in the tech demo where he asks the rabbit device to "filter job candidates to ones that are LA-based" When the r1 address replies to him, it attaches a new spreadsheet, and he opens it on-stage. But the spreadsheet it sent, that they then show on screen, has not filtered any candidates to LA-only. (The column next to their names shows labels on screen like "NYC", "Austin", "Miami", "Seattle", etc) https://youtu.be/22wlLy7hKP4?si=tBt9szqE_AbJPRqW&t=1169 https://youtu.be/22wlLy7hKP4?si=tBt9szqE_AbJPRqW&t=1169 (exact timestamp)
- BenjaminSangwa 2y ago
  Just wow. How did no one spot that one! how did Rabbit have the confidence to just post it. This is a masterclass in human psychology, hindsight is 20/20...
imiric 2y ago
Playing devil's advocate, tech demos are often faked. From the famous "Hello" Mac introduction in 1984[1], to Google with their Gemini demo a few months ago. A certain degree of smoke and mirrors to generate hype around ground-breaking tech is the norm, not the exception. This doesn't necessarily mean that the product itself is a scam. [1]: https://www.folklore.org/Intro_Demo.html https://www.folklore.org/Intro_Demo.html
- duskwuff 2y ago
  > From the famous "Hello" Mac introduction in 1984 I feel like that's a little different. The Macintosh demo was obviously a "sizzle reel", not an example of how the machine would normally behave in use. No one would have watched the demo and expected the computer to talk to the user when turned on. A more interesting reference point might be the iPhone intro, which wasn't "fake", but did rely on a carefully orchestrated sequence of events to avoid known bugs.
  - msephton 2y ago
    The 1984 Macintosh demo also wasn't running on a stock Macintosh, but rather an expanded version of the hardware. So, as well as being a slideshow of sorts it was slightly disingenuous as to what the hardware was capable of.
RockRobotRock 2y ago
To be fair, he doesn't "book" a trip to London in the presentation, he gets flight, hotel, and car rental information, which isn't that out there. But, he does imply that you can book from the device, which is completely insane. How do you deal with flight selection with multiple layovers? Seat choices? DOBs? KTNs? Phone numbers? Frequent flyer number? Payment? Travel insurance? Disability accommodations? What could possibly be the overlap of people who travel enough that this is all worth setting up, who don’t already have their own personal assistant?
- kmlx 2y ago
  just the payment part is it’s own universe of issues, friction, fraud, security etc etc etc

qingcharles 2y ago

I remember the CEO of Nokia showing off their latest phone on stage at Mobile World one year, live in front of the world's assembled press. Little did he know two developers were sweating their nuts off as everything on his screen was coming from an old PC stuffed in a closet in a bedroom thousands of miles away, fed down a ratty cable modem.

maxsilver 2y ago

Fun tidbit: There's a point in the tech demo where he asks the rabbit device to "filter job candidates to ones that are LA-based" When the r1 address replies to him, it attaches a new spreadsheet, and he opens it on-stage. But the spreadsheet it sent, that they then show on screen, has not filtered any candidates to LA-only. (The column next to their names shows labels on screen like "NYC", "Austin", "Miami", "Seattle", etc) https://youtu.be/22wlLy7hKP4?si=tBt9szqE_AbJPRqW&t=1169 https://youtu.be/22wlLy7hKP4?si=tBt9szqE_AbJPRqW&t=1169 (exact timestamp)

BenjaminSangwa 2y ago
Just wow. How did no one spot that one! how did Rabbit have the confidence to just post it. This is a masterclass in human psychology, hindsight is 20/20...

imiric 2y ago

Playing devil's advocate, tech demos are often faked. From the famous "Hello" Mac introduction in 1984[1], to Google with their Gemini demo a few months ago. A certain degree of smoke and mirrors to generate hype around ground-breaking tech is the norm, not the exception. This doesn't necessarily mean that the product itself is a scam. [1]: https://www.folklore.org/Intro_Demo.html https://www.folklore.org/Intro_Demo.html

duskwuff 2y ago
> From the famous "Hello" Mac introduction in 1984 I feel like that's a little different. The Macintosh demo was obviously a "sizzle reel", not an example of how the machine would normally behave in use. No one would have watched the demo and expected the computer to talk to the user when turned on. A more interesting reference point might be the iPhone intro, which wasn't "fake", but did rely on a carefully orchestrated sequence of events to avoid known bugs.
- msephton 2y ago
  The 1984 Macintosh demo also wasn't running on a stock Macintosh, but rather an expanded version of the hardware. So, as well as being a slideshow of sorts it was slightly disingenuous as to what the hardware was capable of.

RockRobotRock 2y ago

To be fair, he doesn't "book" a trip to London in the presentation, he gets flight, hotel, and car rental information, which isn't that out there. But, he does imply that you can book from the device, which is completely insane. How do you deal with flight selection with multiple layovers? Seat choices? DOBs? KTNs? Phone numbers? Frequent flyer number? Payment? Travel insurance? Disability accommodations? What could possibly be the overlap of people who travel enough that this is all worth setting up, who don’t already have their own personal assistant?

kmlx 2y ago
just the payment part is it’s own universe of issues, friction, fraud, security etc etc etc