Your Friend Is Not Your Friend

Simon and Garfunkel once sang that “the words of the prophets are written on subway walls.” I’m not so sure about words of the prophets, but it is undeniable that the words written on subway walls — whether advertisement, graffiti, or both — yield deep insight into the current pulse of American culture. That’s why Avi Schiffmann’s $1 million dollar subway campaign (which he claims to be the largest in history) is so striking. Schiffmann is the CEO of Friend, a startup hawking a $130 AI companion. You wear it (rather unsubtly) around your neck, and for the extent of its 12-hour battery life, it listens in on your conversations and texts you with snarky commentary on your life (and, as testers have noted, overly needy fussing).