# Friend AI Pin is Sad, Funny, and Suspicious [Friend Reveal Trailer](https://youtube.com/watch?v=O_Q1hoEhfk4) <div class=iframe-container> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/O_Q1hoEhfk4?si=C5-91B-IG8KeqLPS" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> Like something out of *Black Mirror* or *Her*, a "new" AI tech wearable product hit the web. Wear a little pendent and have an always-listening AI companion that will just send little notifications to your phone to create the illusion of genuine conversation. On the surface, it's depressing. When digging a little bit around the website, it's funny. When digging deeper to make a blog post, it's suspicious. Watching the reveal trailer alone conveys the sad state. The closing shot, where the women *almost* reaches for her pendent, but decides to stay in the moment with another human being is not heartfelt: it is heartbreaking and delusional. Replace the pendent with a phone, the every day computer we all carry. In that crafted, commercial scenario, reaching for a phone to text another human friend, would fall flat. It doesn't make sense. But switching it to prompting a microphone on your always-on AI pin to tell it "I'm having a nice time with a new friend" is cringe-inducing. The website FAQ is rich with joke material though. Like the questions alone for example; > When will I receive my friend? or > What does 'always listening' mean? My favorite though is the answer to what happens if your break the friend device. > Your friend and their memories are attached to the physical device. If you lose or damage your friend there is no recovery plan. But then you really start to dig around and some red flags, besides the obvious, pop up. So, this little puck requires an internet connect and piggybacks off your phone's bluetooth connection. The FAQ promises that no audio or transcripts are stored "past your friend's context window"—however long that is—and promises end-to-end encryption. Now we go back to the memories being attached to the device. How is it all on-device but also talking to the internet and, you know, understanding what it hears? Then you look around at the replies on Twitter. Apparently the domain [friend.com](https://friend.com) cost [a cool $1.8 million](https://x.com/AviSchiffmann/status/1818289810647191685), which thanks to headline pointed out by another reply is just $100K under the $1.9 million Avi raised for his other AI pin startup Tab. The [Fast Company article](https://www.fastcompany.com/91007630/avi-schiffmanns-tab-ai-necklace-has-raised-1-9-million-to-replace-god) was published *checks date* seven months ago. The [Tab](https://mytab.ai) site is still up, but not accepting orders for its ["Revolution"-colored pucks](https://wiki.raregamingdump.ca/images/1/1f/Rvl-2005-colors.jpg). Maybe Tab has become Friend. All of it is, as the kids say, sus. > “I think ultimately there’s far, far more value in this as . . . friendship as a service,” says Schiffmann. “You could literally make a line graph of *Her* on one end and Jarvis on another end. And I’m making *Her*.” I think "friendship as a service" is all you need to know about Avi and Friend.