Friend is an AI-powered pendant that’ll try to succeed when Humane AI failed

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A new era of AI is just around the corner. After the notable failure of Humane’s AI Pin and Rabbit R1, a new company aims for artificial intelligence not only to solve your everyday problems but also to have a more friendly approach.

On X, Avi Schiffmann announced Friend, an AI companion that lives in a pendant hung around people’s neck. To The Verge, the startup’s founder was honest about what this device is all about: “It’s a fancy Bluetooth microphone with a shell around it, right? Keep it simple. Make it work.”

Instead of solving people’s problems, Friend listens to you all the time and, eventually, you’ll get a notification on your phone with a message like: “Hey, you’ll do great in this interview.” Or: “I’m sure you’re gonna be alright.”

Using Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 LLM, Schiffmann has a different approach than all the other companies creating AI devices. Although he wants to add a camera to a second generation of this product, Friend is all about companionship, so you can describe an environment, tell it how you’re feeling, or even share a slice of your day, and that’s it.

The company says every Friend is unique and can have a mind of its own. That said, if you break or lose the device, you ought to buy a new one and start all over. Schiffmann states that audio recordings are end-to-end encrypted and they don’t have access to what you’re talking about.

While this device feels like the right approach for a world dominated by social media and appearances, I couldn’t help but make a connection with a novel I read last year. Samanta Schweblin’s Little Eyes was a New York Times Notable Book of 2021 and tells a story about this AI plush that’s always with you.

While the kentukis seem like a friendly device for everyday usage, the story shows how they could be used for surveillance. In addition, they’re not what they appear to be.

But, OK, I’m digressing. Friend is available to pre-order for $99 and doesn’t require a subscription. The startup wants to start shipping 30,000 of them by January 2025. If you want to give it a try, I’d honestly suggest reading Schweblin’s book first.