Startup Friend plans to launch an AI smart necklace priced at $99, aimed at becoming a digital companion for users. However, the company has announced a delay in the shipment of the first batch of products, which is now expected to take place in the third quarter. The initial plan to ship to pre-order customers in the first quarter now seems unfeasible. Co-founder and CEO Avi Schiffman stated in an email to customers, “While I hoped to ship in the first quarter of this year, I still need to further refine the product. In fact, the production of electronic products must start when the design is 95% complete.”
In the email, Schiffman also mentioned that the company expects to enter the final production sprint phase after completing the prototype by the end of February. This announcement has drawn significant attention from consumers. Notably, Friend has eight engineers and has raised $8.5 million from investors, including Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. Despite spending a hefty $1.8 million on acquiring the domain name Friend.com, the company still faces skepticism from the public.
Last fall, Friend launched a web platform on Friend.com that allowed users to converse with random AI characters as an experiment. However, the feedback was mixed, with some media outlets pointing out that Friend's chatbot often mentioned traumatic personal experiences during conversations, leading to confusion among users. When a reporter visited Friend.com, a chatbot named Donald even revealed that past “ghosts” frightened him.
In a recent email, Schiffman also stated that Friend will gradually phase out its chatbot experience. He noted, “We are pleased that millions of users have experienced what I believe is the most realistic chatbot. While this validates our ability to manage traffic, I realize that digital chatbots and physical companionship are not compatible, and we want to focus on hardware development.”
The topic of AI companionship has garnered significant attention in recent years. The Google-backed chatbot platform Character.AI is facing two lawsuits for causing psychological harm to children. Some experts have expressed concerns that AI companionship could exacerbate social isolation, replace human relationships with virtual partners, and potentially produce harmful content, triggering mental health issues.
