Interview with the Founder of Company’s Wearable AI Friend

On July 30, a new AI wearable company called Friend emerged. The gadget, which is a round lanyard-equipped button, is designed to keep you company.

For a price of $99, you can press the button and communicate with your ‘friend’. The app on your phone will then respond, similar to a text message. It is important to note that the device requires a continuous internet connection, thus necessitating the phone to be in close proximity at all times.

At the age of 21, Schiffmann first made a name for himself by developing a live tracker in 2020. He then went on to launch his next online project, called Ukraine Take Shelter, which he says successfully assisted 100,000 refugees in finding housing. Since then, he has left college and is currently focused on releasing his latest project, Friend.

Avi, unlike other AI wearables, is not targeting productivity.

“The purpose of Friend is not to enhance productivity or aid in memory recall. It serves as a conversational companion with whom you can share experiences.”

After conducting an interview with The Verge, Schiffmann shared screenshots of Friend’s response to his performance as an example.

The original Friend

In October 2023, Avi Schiffmann first introduced Friend as “Tab”.

I just built the world’s most personal wearable AI!You can talk to Tab about anything in your life. Our computers are now our creative partners! pic.twitter.com/RraiOPL4sm

— Avi (@AviSchiffmann) October 1, 2023

The Harvard Crimson featured an article on Schiffmann, highlighting its impressive sales of over $100,000. The product initially had a limited release of 100 units, but a second batch was later made available, as stated in Schiffmann’s tweets.

During the interview, Schiffmann is seen donning what he referred to as “Tab”- a black disc with a button. He presented it as an AI “life coach”.

Building an AI Friend

introducing friend. not imaginary.order now at https://t.co/7kGiH5pQVK pic.twitter.com/qU58xNvX5v

— Avi (@AviSchiffmann) July 30, 2024

The majority of companies releasing AI products will opt to utilize one of the existing programming languages. Instead of creating their own language from the ground up, these “wrapper”startups will rely on established platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Meta’s Llama.

In this situation, Friend relies on Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 and Llama 3 for guidance. Schiffmann clarifies, “We will continuously utilize the top-performing models, either by adopting existing ones or creating our own. At the moment, we are utilizing a combination of Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 and Meta Llama 3.”

Claude 3.5 is widely considered to be one of the top language models available. It has consistently outperformed OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4-o, and Meta’s Llama 3 has also received recognition for its exceptional quality.

Instead of focusing on voice assistants like other competitors, Friend will exclusively communicate with you through text.

The feature is constantly monitoring, and when you initiate it, it will produce a reply using the data it has collected.

The app presents this through a notification or in the chat window. In the video, it seemed to be always running in the background and sending push notifications to keep the story going.

We inquired about the absence of a voice, which Schiffmann referred to as “foolish.”

“The speaker believes that voice output is not a reliable option. Instead, they prefer reading a text due to its faster and more private nature. Additionally, they argue that reading is more immersive as it always functions properly unlike glitchy voices.”

The AI Pin from Humane became well-known for getting stuck while attempting to pronounce “Beyoncé”correctly, most likely due to the accent.

Despite this, Schiffmann maintains that the Friend pendant is not intended for increasing productivity. According to him, the purpose of the pendant is to simplify and reduce the difficulty of the initial interaction when talking to a friend.

AI Skepticism Takes Over Friend’s Debut

The response to Friend has been doubtful, due to the fact that there have been two significant failures in the AI wearable industry this year. Both Rabbit’s R1 and Humane’s AI Pin were unable to live up to their grand promises.

An ongoing investigation into the Rabbit R1 has uncovered a significant security flaw on their backend servers. It has been discovered that the servers were storing users’ chat logs without the ability to delete them. Additionally, popular YouTuber CoffeeZilla has raised concerns about Rabbit

After expressing our concerns about the security matter, Schiffmann reassured us that “everything is encrypted.”Additionally, we inquired about their compliance with the increasingly stringent privacy regulations in the EU.

He added that all audio and transcripts are encrypted using end-to-end encryption, and users can easily view and delete all the memories their friends have of them in the app with just one click.

Apple and Meta have recently halted all AI projects in the EU due to the increasing scrutiny of tech by the Union. This decision was made in response to regulatory concerns.

How secure will Friend be? We’re still finding out

Only iOS devices, which have a history of security issues, will have access to Friend. The iPhone, being one of the most widely used devices globally, is a frequent target for hackers.

It has been suggested that a new feature may have the ability to bypass onboard security methods such as FaceID. Apple disclosed in June that macOS will now have the capability to replicate iPhones, allowing individuals to utilize their iPhone on their Mac.

The app replaced previous on-board security measures with passwords and TouchID, which are susceptible to being bypassed. This leaves users vulnerable as all of their information is stored within the app.

During a conversation regarding potential methods to bypass onboard security in privacy-focused apps, co-host Adam Boileau stated: “For some of us who heavily rely on apps like Signal on iPhone, due to its robust hardware security measures…”

“The concept of using your desktop, specifically electron apps, to access Signal on your phone is a bit unconventional.”

As I may have mentioned before, this is the most amazing feature that I absolutely do not want anywhere near me.”

We have inquired about how Friend plans to manage potential security concerns, including less frequent scenarios like this one.

Why isn’t Friend just an app?

Although the Rabbit R1 is simply an Android device with an accompanying app, Schiffmann still values the importance of conversation. He advises against becoming too fixated on the app on your phone as the primary means of interacting with the device.

This would restrict your communication with your friend to just using an app, which limits the activity to simply chatting. However, with Friend, it is constantly listening and available for conversation at any time, without the need to be solely focused on using an app.

Currently, there is no set release date for Friend, but it is currently available for pre-order at a price of $99 on their website friend.com.