All this fuss over a tiny robot spy?
Friend is a $99 AI pal in a bulky necklace. Creator Avi Schiffmann told The Verge that, unlike other AI wearables, Friend isn’t for productivity but companionship.
It has an always-on microphone and makes supportive or playful comments about the wearer’s day. You can talk to it, but it replies through texts via an app.
Friend released a bizarre ad in which the device teases a man already being mocked by his IRL friends, while another man realizes he’s on the worst date of his life.
But the strangeness doesn’t stop there.
Developer Nik Shevchenko…
… released a flow-less diss track claiming Schiffmann stole his idea. Shevchenko also has an always-on AI bot in a necklace called Friend, only his is open-source.
Shevchenko’s proof? Schiffmann’s device was originally called Tab.
But Schiffmann told 404 Media that “everyone” in San Francisco knew that, and posted a receipt showing he’d purchased the domain Friend.com — for a staggering $1.8m — in February, prior to the March launch of Shevchenko’s device.
Flair AI founder Mickey Friedman claims Schiffmann had talked about buying Friend.com even earlier in January, and that someone told Shevchenko.
Two other weird things:
- Shevchenko ran a poll on X in March asking which device — including Schiffmann’s Tab — he should make an open-source version of. Schiffmann blocked him.
- Schiffmann gained fame in 2020 after building a covid-tracking website. Per 404 Media, a group of volunteer trackers accused him of stealing their data without credit.
This is too much drama. Does it even matter?
Outside of any eventual court proceedings, it may not.
No one has produced an AI wearable that’s caught on:
- Humane’s $699 AI Pin flopped hard, racking up bad reviews.
- So did the $199 Rabbit R1.
Friend is different, sure, but do people want a robot companion they wear around? And what about that always-on microphone, considering it’s illegal to record conversations without consent in 11 states?
Schiffmann told Wired that Friend won’t store recordings or transcripts, but people might still be wary of someone wearing a big ol’ Friend around their neck — which could make them even more reliant on robot friends, now that we think about it.
