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AI-powered eavesdropping "Friend" gadget reviewed [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-09-08

The title of Boone Ashworth and Kylie Robinson's Wired item about the Friend necklace is dispositive: "I Hate My Friend." An inconspicuous, medallion-sized recorder that "provides a running commentary" on your life, it has nothing at all to recommend it beyond the sick joke of its existence.

If the idea of a microphone-packed wearable that's always listening to your conversations raises privacy concerns for you, just know that you're not alone. If your experience is anything like ours, wearing the Friend will likely earn you the ire of everyone around you. Curiously, you might even end up being bullied by the chatbot itself. Friend is the creation of Avi Schiffmann, who announced his invention in July 2024 with a creepy video that showed people talking to the chatbots inside their pendants like they were actual humans. The Friends feel chummy; Schiffmann's chatbots exhibit imperfections that make them seem more like real humans.

There's a Poe's Law-esque quality to it. It's indistinguishable from a culture-jamming parody of AI crapgadgets like the Humane Pin. Surely that's the idea?

Schiffmann says the Friend's personality reflects a worldview close to his own; that of a man in his early twenties. But Schiffmann can be brash, snarky, and vocally unconcerned about critical feedback, and it seems like that attitude has carried over to the device he has infused with his essence. In this era of cloyingly obsequious chatbots, it could seem refreshing to interact with an AI companion that isn't unfailingly sycophantic. But the Friend often goes hard in the other direction. Its tone comes off as opinionated, judgy, and downright condescending at times.

Is Schiffmann for real?

Roll up, roll up! Buy your pocket-size wifi and cellular jammers today! Before the powers that be realize something the FCC might be useful for! And fear not, there'll always be hammers.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/09/08/ai-powered-eavesdropping-gadgets-reviewed.html

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