A new artificial intelligence device called “Friend” launched a splashy $1 million ad campaign in New York City, blanketing subway stations with posters promoting its wearable AI companion. But instead of welcoming the product, New Yorkers turned the ads into canvases of protest, graffiting messages like “surveillance capitalism” and “get real friends.”
Featured VideoThis artificial companion now seems to be a focal point for human frustration with the spread of AI, with some blaming the tech for creating the loneliness problem in the first place.
Others accuse the company of existing to steal and sell any data it can squeeze out of you.
New Yorkers reject the AI “Friend”
Friend CEO Avi Schiffmann reportedly spent $1 million to blanket the New York subway with ads for this device. Poster after poster shows an image of the wearable tech in the form of a necklace with a button on it.
AdvertisementLike Life Alert, but for even lonelier people. Also, instead of sending paramedics, Friend sends you a text every time you push the button to respond to whatever you just said.
You don’t need to push anything to tell it to listen. It’s always listening.
The response to the first Friend ads—in the form of social media videos—drew mixed reactions at best. At some point, Schiffmann decided to lean into the hate.
Advertisement“I know people in New York hate AI, and things like AI companionship and wearables, probably more than anywhere else in the country,” he said, according to Adweek. “So I bought more ads than anyone has ever done with a lot of white space so that they would socially comment on the topic.”
And socially comment they did. It wasn’t long before New Yorkers started covering the subway ads with messages such as “stop profiting off of loneliness.”
Surveillance capitalism refers to the concept of a new market in which corporations collect and commodify personal data. The term came about in 2014 as tech companies began to routinely sneak permissions to grab this information from users into their Terms of Service TOS agreements.
@jackmacbarstoolAdvertisementFeels like a scary black mirror episode come to life.
♬ original sound – Jack Mac
As common as the practice may be today, no one other than those making bank on the data seems to like it. TikToker @jackmacbarstool pointed out that Friend requires all users to give permission for the device to collect data from their speech and surroundings and use it to train more AI.
“Black Mirror” comparisons flood social media
The idea of pretending to have a wearable friend that only really exists to make money off you was quickly compared to something out of the dystopian horror series Black Mirror. In the comments on that TikTok video, folks could hardly help themselves.
Advertisement“This is black mirror coded,” said @ajanibolden.
“Black mirror never runs out of material,” agreed @michylooloo.
On X, where Schiffmann is busy advertising his advertising campaign, the response was no better—unless you’re incapable of detecting sarcasm.
Advertisement“I read an article about this thing and it’s possibly the greatest product ever made,” wrote @ByYourLogic. “You have to wear a gigantic pendant that’s always glowing and it listens to everything you do so it can text you in the style of a sassy sidekick in a Ubisoft open world game.”
Meanwhile, folks like @SAMOYEDCORE posted screenshots from the Friend FAQ.
Others slid into yet another existential depression, especially over the ad that says “I’ll binge the entire series with you.”
Advertisement“This one was especially sad I thought,” said @OttoPivnerBFA. “Your selling point is a computer will watch TV with you?”
“It’s frankly dystopian how the tech companies started a loneliness epidemic by isolating people on their devices and is now selling us devices they falsely claim will cure that loneliness,” @SketchesbyBoze added.
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