I'm Hooked on You

In a strange twist of fate, the digital devices we have created that connect us to the entire world have made us more isolated and lonely than ever before. As we immerse ourselves in the endless stream of social media feeds, video calls, and online interactions, we often find ourselves substituting genuine, face-to-face connections with virtual encounters. The convenience of instant communication has paradoxically led to a decline in meaningful conversations, as we become more accustomed to scrolling through curated images and status updates rather than engaging in deep, personal exchanges.

Most people would probably meet this problem with a simple solution, like putting their smartphone back in their pocket and venturing out into the real world for a change. But not everyone. Avi Schiffmann’s approach is to double down on digital communications, sprinkle in some artificial intelligence, and sling a good buddy around his neck. Called “Friend,” this digital buddy is worn as a pendant that continually listens in on your conversations and the ambient noises around you. When appropriate, Friend will text you with a contextually relevant message, with the aim of keeping you company.

It has often been said that you cannot buy true friendship, but you can by Friend for $99. For this price you get the always-listening pendant, which also has a single button that can be pressed when you want the device to take a more active role in a conversation than that of a good listener. From there, Friend must interact with an internet-connected iOS device before it sends you a text message in response.

While there are few details about how Friend works, from the demonstrations and available information, it appears likely that the companion app sends transcriptions of your voice to a large language model (LLM) in the cloud before texting you the response. That being the case, anyone that has ever used an LLM will probably have some pretty strong suspicions that Friend will not have any chance of replacing real human interactions. But if you look at it more as a toy, then Friend may find a place in your life.

Of course you would have to put a lot of trust in this device to wear it everywhere you go. It is noted that the communications are encrypted, but still, Friend is always listening and presumably transmitting your every word to an unknown server somewhere in the cloud. There may be friends in your real life that you trust with anything — but can you say the same about this digital “friend?”

The device is available for pre-order, with the first shipments expected to go out in early 2025. But if you would rather just have a laugh and see what Friend could become if Skynet becomes a reality and decides to do away with humanity, check out Jose Castillo’s spoof called Enemy. Personally, I am going to hold out until someone creates a digital Frenemy so that I can get the whole package in one device.