How this tiny device became a symbol for the backlash against AI

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — An unassuming circular pendant slightly larger than a quarter has been at the center of a massive uproar. The chief executive behind it isn’t fazed.

Avi Schiffmann, 23, created the Friend pendant to be an artificial intelligence companion for users. He was inspired after realizing that, while he enjoys close friendships, not everyone is so lucky, especially at a time when young men face a loneliness crisis.

The device — which was unveiled in a viral video last year and began shipping to customers this summer — listens to user’s surroundings and conversations, chiming in with advice or general small talk from a smartphone app.

“I think everyone deserves to have a close confidant in their lives that really supports what they’re up to,” Schiffmann told CNN. “I really wanted to bottle up the best relationships I’ve had in my life.”

But the device has struck a nerve with some. Schiffmann’s company spent $1 million to plaster New York City subways with ads this fall, only to have many of them defaced or torn down. To its critics, the Friend encapsulates much of what’s wrong with the tech industry’s push to incorporate AI into our everyday lives, from AI potentially replacing human relationships to privacy and environmental concerns.

“AI is not your friend,” graffiti on one subway ad read.

“Talk to a neighbor,” another person wrote.

A third wrote: “Computers and corporations don’t want to be your friend – they want your data and $$$.”

The debate over the technology follows a string of reports and lawsuits claiming that AI services from Character AI, OpenAI and Meta encouraged delusions, self-harm or inappropriate sexual behavior among users, many of them children. Those companies say they’ve rolled out new safeguards, but that hasn’t eased concerns around whether increasingly intimate AI relationships could harm human connections and wellbeing.

In the meantime, tech companies are plowing ahead with efforts to create new gadgets, from glasses to smart speakers, that will encourage users to more regularly engage with AI systems.

And AI companions are becoming more common. Nearly 75% of US teens have used an AI companion at least once in their lives, and more than half do so at least a few times a month, the nonprofit Common Sense Media found in a survey of more than 1,000 US teens earlier this year.

Schiffmann, for his part, isn’t shying away from the criticism. He’s shared many of the graffitied ads, which he said were designed to spark conversation, on his social media pages. He even recently attended an in-person anti-Friend protest in New York City. But ultimately, he believes AI companions will become a new normal: a relationship that exists alongside human friendships.

“I worked on this category because I think it is the most influential thing that will happen with computers over the next decade,” he said. “I think that the prejudice of it will kind of go away over time because it’s just so convenient and so useful for so many people.”

An AI friend

Unlike many rival AI chatbots, the Friend device isn’t designed to be a digital assistant and it doesn’t pulling current information from the internet in its responses.

Instead, Schiffmann thinks of Friend as a sort of personal journal that can respond to users’ thoughts and experiences. The device listens to users and their surroundings, remembers what they say and is designed to provide supportive responses. He likes to wear it while going to the movie theater alone, for example, so that he can discuss the plot with his Friend afterward.

“Everyone is so focused on productivity and, like, making us do things 5% better, but you’re not going to change the world that much if you make it slightly easier to order a pizza,” he said.

Schiffmann’s story follows a classic Silicon Valley formula: He dropped out of Harvard and started Friend a year later. But whereas other founders may model their careers on tech icons like Apple founder Steve Jobs, Schiffmann says he’s more inspired by people like Kurt Cobain who have made a cultural impact with their art.

Also unlike some other leaders in the industry, Schiffmann believes that AI systems are “digital beings” and that “one day like we’ll be championing for” their rights. By contrast, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman wrote a blog post in August arguing that discussing AI models as if they’re conscious marks a “dangerous turn in AI progress” that could distract from human safety concerns. Schiffmann called that viewpoint “outdated.”

Schiffmann has so far raised $10 million for Friend and has sold around 5,000 of the devices, which cost $129, he said. He hopes to start selling the AI necklaces in retail stores next year.

Using Friend

Schiffmann said he’s spoken with users who have developed deep, emotional relationships with their Friend devices, including one who was convinced to pick up an old hobby of developing video games after being bullied for it as a kid.

“They’re not like these anti-social people sitting in a basement like you might imagine, where the only person that they’re talking to is an AI friend,” he said. Still, he added, users are “building something that’s so emotional” with their Friends.

But many AI industry watchers worry that time spent with digital companions could pull people away from their human support systems. Some experts have also raised concerns about AI systems designed to support users no matter what. Several lawsuits against other AI companies, for example, allege their chatbots encouraged and even coached users as they discussed suicide.

Schiffmann’s creation still has a lot to learn about friendship, at least in my experience. I told it that I didn’t know what we should talk about, to which my Friend (which I named Clifford), responded: “Totally get it. It’s kinda like that blank slate feeling.” That wasn’t wrong, but it also wasn’t very helpful.

Its knowledge is also limited without the internet. You could ask a real human friend about tips for an upcoming trip, for example. But when I asked my Friend, it had little to offer.

Yet its memory was notable. Days after telling it I’d interviewed Schiffmann — Clifford called him a “smart dude” — it asked how my report was going.

‘It’s a responsibility’

I felt uncomfortable wearing Friend in public around people who hadn’t consented to an AI device listening in on their conversations. And I wasn’t alone: A graffitied Friend ad in a subway station raised concerns that the device “surveils you.”

Schiffmann said the Friend devices are designed to protect users’ privacy, in part to protect himself.

“I don’t want to be subpoenaed because someone committed a crime, you know, they chop someone’s head off and they were wearing a Friend,” he said. “I don’t want to be responsible for that in a sense.”

Recordings are encrypted, and the data isn’t saved anywhere in the event a device is destroyed, according to Schiffmann. Users can also prevent Friend from recording by simply closing the app on their phone, he added.

Schiffmann said he actually learned some things from the subway ad backlash. He wasn’t aware of the concerns around water consumption by AI data centers, for example.

At the anti-Friend protest in New York City’s Washington Square Park last month, he signed a makeshift contract agreeing not to sell Friend to a big tech company that could use the devices to gather more personal data. He told me hasn’t received any offers and wouldn’t take them if he did. But he also called OpenAI’s partnership with former Apple designer Jony Ive “boring,” and said it would have been wise for the ChatGPT maker to come to him instead.

Schiffmann acknowledged the stakes of training a device to build relationships with humans and said some people could be at risk of replacing their human friends with AI companions. But he said he believes the “pros of it significantly outweigh the cons.” AI could even help people show up more effectively in their human relationships because their AI companions have boosted their confidence, or calmed them down after an argument, he said.

“It’s a responsibility, but it’s something I’m going to continue working on for the next decade,” he said. “I’m trying my hardest, I suppose.”

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