Need a Friend? You Can Now Pay $99 for an A.I. Companion
Alexa will be so jealous when she hears about this . . .
A promo video for a new product called "Friend" blew up on social media this weekend. It's a virtual companion you wear like a necklace. The pendant has a built-in microphone that listens and responds to whatever you say.
People are mostly mocking it for being dystopian and weird, but some people like the idea. One person said it's like a Tamagotchi . . . the virtual pets from the '90s . . . but called it a "Tamagotchi with a soul."
It's ALWAYS listening and tosses out comments when it wants to. But it can't totally replace real friends yet, because it doesn't talk. It only responds via text.
The ad shows a woman eating and watching a show on her phone when a message pops up saying the show is "completely underrated." Then it asks if her falafel is any good. (Here's the video.)
One way it IS like a Tamagotchi is it can DIE. Their website says "Your friend and their memories are attached to the physical device. If you lose or damage your friend, there is no recovery plan."
You can pre-order them for $99 at Friend.com, but they don't ship until early next year. The current version only works with iPhones. They say they'll expand to Android if there's enough demand.
People are making fun of it. But a recent study at Stanford found virtual friends could be helpful for people who live alone, or just don't have a lot of friends to turn to for advice.
(The Guardian / NY Post)
(Here's a photo.)
(The guy behind it is 21-year-old Avi Schiffmann. At 17, he won an award for creating the nCoV2019.live website everyone was using back then to track covid numbers.)
Originally posted on August 5th, 2024