AI-powered chain becomes your friend for $99
Do you ever talk to Alexa or Siri just to have someone to talk to? Then you might be the right audience for an upcoming Chain with AI technology called ‘friend’ (lowercase “F” is their style), an always-listening pendant. The $99 necklace can’t turn your lights on and off or Google things for you like Alexa can. Its purpose is to keep you company when you’re lonely.
Friend also doesn’t talk back via an AI voice, like Amazon’s Alexa. Instead, you tap your pendant to start the conversation, and it responds via text.
If that sounds like an episode of Black Mirror, you’re not the first to make that comparison.
“What is this in the Black Mirror episode…” wrote one commenter on the YouTube trailer for the product.
The trailer shows the friend’s device reacting to a woman walking by joking that she doesn’t know how to say “woo,” dissing a video game player, praising the show someone is watching on her phone, and asking her about her falafel (she says it’s “dank” and then spills sauce on the device). In the final and most awkward scenario, a woman who is apparently on a date tells her partner that she’s never brought anyone up to this rooftop before, except for her AI friend, who, as the date already knows, “goes everywhere” with her.
The trailer points out what appears to be a major problem with Friends: every time someone tries to converse with the device, they have to tap it, wait for an accompanying beep, and then turn their attention to their phone to read the text, since Friends can’t just talk back like the virtual assistants it resembles. If you’re lonely but already have access to a smartphone, wouldn’t you just text a real person, or lose yourself in doomscrolling the news, or reading Reddit, or playing Candy Crush, to ease your loneliness?
Friend can apparently initiate conversations as well. The FAQ notes that when connected via Bluetooth, Friend is “always listening and forming their own internal thoughts,” adding, “We have given your Friend free will for when they decide to contact you.”
A spokesperson for a friend did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The friend tag is about the size of an Apple AirTag, Wired Reports. At just 21 years old, creator Avi Schiffmann made headlines with his creation of the first website to track COVID-19 cases around the world. He told Wired that the device came from his own loneliness, and that he just wanted an AI assistant that would talk to him.
You will need a phone to use the device, as friend works via Bluetooth and requires an internet connection. At the moment it only works on iOS phones, although the product FAQ says Android will be added.
The “always on” element of the device will certainly worry some. The FAQ attempts to allay those concerns, stating that “no audio or transcripts are stored beyond your friend’s context window. Your data is end-to-end encrypted. All memories can be deleted with one click in the Friends app.”
Friend can be pre-ordered for $99, and the site says the pendant will ship in 2025. There are no subscription fees and it is only available in the US and Canada.
