The New Friend AI Pendant Can Now Talk Back to You

Friend CEO Avi Schiffmann welcomes me into his palace—what he calls his large apartment in San Francisco.

He sits on the couch in his living room, clad in an orange shirt emblazoned with a cartoon version of the motorcycle driven by Italian racer Valentino Rossi. He props his feet up on the side table and leans back, a round, softly glowing circular Friend pendant dangling from a yellow cord around his neck.

This is the second iteration of the Friend necklace, the controversial AI companion device that just about everyone (me included) seems to hate. The company announced the device on Thursday through its new X handle.

The first version of Friend was an always-listening AI wearablethat responded via text message. The big update here is a speaker on the back that lets the device voice its responses aloud. That has changed the shape of...

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