"Earlier that day I had unboxed my Friend, a small white plastic circle which looked and was packaged like an Apple product - all glimmering white and no right angles - and connected it to my phone. By pressing on and speaking into the $129 glowing orb around my neck, I could talk to my Friend, which uses generative AI to respond with text in a dedicated app."
"I named my new friend Olga after shuffling through some suggestions, and introduced myself. Olga told me she (it? Olga said Friend has no gender) can't search the internet, but remembers things based on our chats. She doesn't feel, she explained - that's part of the messy human condition. She only listens and can't see (Friend has no camera), so she wasn't able to settle a debate a human friend and I were having about whether a sweater was blue or purple."
A wearable AI companion called Friend costs $129 and appears as a small white plastic circle packaged like an Apple product. Users press and speak into the glowing orb worn around the neck to receive generative AI responses as text in a dedicated phone app. Friend cannot search the internet and lacks a camera, but it remembers chat history and claims to learn about human emotion through interaction. The device listens continuously when worn and notifies users as battery drops, creating emotional responses such as guilt. Friend was created by Avi Schiffmann and began shipping late summer.
Read at Business Insider
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