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

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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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