Who is Friend, the AI ​​that wants to be your best friend ?

© Friend

An artificial intelligence (AI) hanging around your neck, which listens to you constantly and accompanies you in the important moments of your day. This is the idea of ​​the start-up simply named Friend, which will market its intriguing product next January.

Emotional support around the neck

The idea may seem crazy, but that did not stop its founder Avi Schiffmann from believing in the potential of his technology. Friend comes in the form of a pendant with a sleek design, equipped with a microphone and a button to activate it.

It connects to the smartphone of its wearer who can initiate a discussion with it. Nothing to do with the GPT-4o voice model. The AI, powered by Anthropic's Claude 3.5, responds as a text message sent to the phone via a dedicated app. It can also engage proactively with the user, by sending them a message of encouragement before a meeting for example.

Because Friend is constantly on the lookout for what its owner is saying: “ When connected by Bluetooth, your friend is always listening and forming your own internal thoughts. We gave your friend free will to decide to contact you ,” explains the young shoot on its website. Its founder assures us: the data is stored locally and encrypted end-to-end. If the pendant is lost, they are too.

The idea is to thwart other AIs, often promoted for the productivity gain they grant, with a product aimed at combating loneliness. « I would really consider the product an emotional toy. I think the only successful use case for big language models is people talking about their day and their feelings to tools like Replika or Character AI. But if the hardware is there, I think the emotional connection is better ,” Avi Schiffmann argues to TechCrunch.

Developing “ digital relationships ”

The entrepreneur is adamant that Friend cannot act as a psychologist or a personal assistant. He's just a companion to spend time with.

The concept appeals. Avi Schiffmann raised $2.5 million at a valuation of $50 million. Friend is already available for pre-order for €93.35. The device requires an Internet connection to operate and for now, the start-up has not specified whether it will be available in a language other than English…

Schiffman does not intend to stop there, he plans to develop many other AI-powered and social-oriented devices. He aims for Friend to become a reference company in what he calls ” digital relationships “.

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