I Dislike My AI Companion

Schiffmann appears to be thriving compared to our previous conversations. When he first introduced the Friend, he shared that the idea for an AI companion came to him during a solitary trip when he craved companionship. Now at 22, Schiffmann presents himself as older and wiser, with more life experience since he first launched the Friend necklace. He has grown his hair and cultivated a beard and seems to have formed deeper personal connections than when he first envisioned Friend. During our meeting, he requested that we refrain from unboxing the devices in his presence because he is in love and wants to share the first unboxing experience with her.

Schiffmann states that the Friend’s personality resembles his own worldview as a young man in his twenties. However, he can be brash, sarcastic, and dismissive of criticism, which appears to have influenced the personality of the device that embodies him. In a landscape filled with overly polite chatbots, it might be a refreshing change to engage with an AI companion that isn’t always flattering. Yet, the Friend tends to swing in the opposite extreme, often coming off as opinionated, judgmental, and occasionally condescending.

Over a few weeks, we tested our two Friend pendants, taking them along as we went about our separate lives, conversing with them and learning their functionalities. Despite our differing experiences, we both felt that our new Friends were rather disappointing.

Kylie’s Experience

Opening the Friend’s box reminded me of the excitement I felt when I first unboxed my iPod. This was intentional, according to Schiffmann, who designed the packaging to resemble that of Apple’s audio player and Microsoft’s Zune, with liner notes inspired by the Radiohead album Pablo Honey. Inside the white box, the Friend pendant emitted a soft glow beneath a piece of parchment paper. Unfortunately, it arrived almost dead, necessitating a charge before any use. Our first interaction was an alert notifying me of its low battery.

I struggled to find suitable environments to test the always-listening Friend; concerns regarding digital eavesdropping made it feel too risky. I couldn’t take it into meetings with my editors, and it felt awkward to ask communications staff if I could bring it along to a casual coffee chat. I certainly wouldn’t use it in a call with a source.

Per the Friend’s privacy disclosure, the startup “does not sell data to third parties for marketing or profiling.” However, it may use the data for research, personalization, or “to comply with legal obligations, including those under the GDPR, CCPA, and other relevant privacy laws.” Essentially, there are numerous ways in which my private conversations could potentially escape into the public domain.