Friend (product)

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Friend (stylized as friend) is a wearable artificial intelligence device released by a startup company with the same name. Avi Schiffmann, a Harvard University dropout, designed and released its first product in October 2023. Friend received significant backlash following a marketing campaign in 2025 that featured 11,000 advertisements in New York City.

Contents

History

Founder Avi Schiffmann began pitching his idea for the product in 2023, at the age of 21. The project was initially called "Tab" and had received over $250,000 in investments by the end of the year. [1] In 2024, Schiffmann spent $1.8 million on the domain "friend.com", which had been unclaimed for 17 years. [2]

Products

While Friend offers an online, LLM-powered chatbot, its flagship product is a pendant with a microphone that incorporates the chatbot. The device is just under two inches in size. [3] The product has drawn comparisons to Tamagotchis. [4] [5] The device does not speak back, rather it communicates by sending text messages to the user's phone in real time. [6]

Reception

2025 New York subway campaign

Friend spent over $1 million on advertisements with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the corporation in charge of public transportation in New York City. [6] In total, the campaign included advertisements in over 11,000 rail cars, over 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels. [7] Schiffmann claimed it was the largest marketing campaign in NYC subway history, [8] [9] describing it as a "takeover", saying further that "it almost felt illegal". [10] People vandalized many of the ads with criticism of the product. [9] [11]

References

  1. ↑ Duffy, Hewson (December 3, 2023). "Harvard Dropout Avi Schiffmann is Making an AI-Powered 'Wearable Mom'". www.thecrimson.com. The Harvard Crimson.
  2. ↑ Ghert-Zand, Renee (9 August 2024). "Whiz kid Avi Schiffmann is back, this time with a new controversial AI 'Friend'". The Times of Israel.
  3. ↑ Ashworth, Boone (September 8, 2025). "I Hate My Friend". Wired.
  4. ↑ Pierce, David (30 July 2024). "Your new AI Friend is almost ready to meet you". The Verge.
  5. ↑ Aggeler, Madeleine (2 August 2024). "Can an AI friend make you less lonely?". The Guardian.
  6. 1 2 Mills, Jen (September 29, 2025). "Adverts for 'fake AI friend' you wear as a necklace defaced on subway". Metro. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
  7. ↑ Ostwal, Trishla (26 September 2025). "AI Startup Friend Bets On Foes With $1M NYC Subway Campaign". Adweek.
  8. ↑ Schiffmann, Avi [@AviSchiffmann] (September 25, 2025). "Largest NYC subway campaign ever Happening now" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2025-09-27. Retrieved 2025-10-08– via Twitter.
  9. 1 2 Witte, Rae (30 September 2025). "New Yorkers Are Defacing This AI Startup's Million-Dollar Ad Campaign". Futurism.
  10. ↑ Montali, Stefano (7 October 2025). "A.I. Companion Ads for Friend.com Flood NYC Subway, Fueling Backlash and Vandalism".
  11. ↑ Wong, Matteo (6 October 2025). "The Most Reviled Tech CEO in New York Confronts His Haters". The Atlantic.
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