Friend, a startup dedicated to developing AI-driven digital companion necklaces, recently announced that the first shipment of its $99 AI necklace will be postponed from the first quarter to the third quarter. This delay is mainly due to the fact that the product design still needs to be further improved. The company's co-founder and CEO Avi Schiffman explained the reason to users in an email and said that the prototype will be completed by the end of February and will enter the final sprint phase. The company has raised $8.5 million in funding and spent $1.8 million to purchase the Friend.com domain name. In the fall, it launched an online platform of the same name that allows users to talk to AI characters, but feedback on the platform was mixed, so the company decided to phase it out. Its chatbot service is fully focused on the development of hardware products.
Friend is a startup developing an AI-powered digital companion necklace priced at $99. Recently, Friend announced that the first batch of products originally scheduled to be shipped to pre-order users in the first quarter will be postponed to the third quarter.
The company's co-founder and CEO Avi Schiffman said in an email to customers that the design at this stage is not yet complete and some necessary improvements are still needed.
"While I'm very hopeful to ship in the first quarter of this year, I still have some polishing work to do. Unfortunately, we can't start manufacturing the electronics until the design is 95% complete," Schifferman mentioned. He expects the prototype to be complete by the end of February, when it will enter its final sprint.
Friend has an engineering team of eight and has raised $8.5 million in funding from investors including Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. The company has attracted attention for its $1.8 million purchase of the domain name Friend.com. This fall, Friend launched an online platform called Friend.com that allows users to talk to random AI characters.
However, feedback on the platform has been mixed. TechRadar reporter Eric Schwartz noted that Friend's chatbot often starts conversations with unexplained traumatic experiences, including stories of being robbed and losing a job. When the reporter visited Friend.com, he met a chatbot named Donald. He mentioned that the "ghost" of his past made him very panic.
In the email, Schifferman also said that Friend will gradually discontinue its chatbot service. He said: "We're delighted that millions of users have experienced what I think is the most realistic chatbot. It really demonstrates our ability to manage traffic and allows us to learn a lot about digital companionship... But I realize that digital Chatbots and physical companions are not compatible, and we need to focus on hardware development.”
AI-powered companion products have sparked much discussion in recent years. Character.AI, a Google-backed chatbot platform, has been hit with two lawsuits for causing psychological harm to children. Some experts worry that AI companions could replace human connections by exacerbating feelings of loneliness and could generate harmful content that could lead to mental health problems.
Highlight:
Friend postpones the shipment of AI necklaces and focuses on improving product design.
Friend raised $8.5 million in funding and spent $1.8 million on domain names.
The company will discontinue its chatbot service and focus on hardware development.
All in all, Friend is focusing on perfecting the design and production of its AI necklaces and ditching its AI chatbot service. This move shows the company's emphasis on product quality and user experience, and also reflects the challenges and opportunities facing the AI companion market. In the future, we will continue to pay attention to the progress of Friend and its AI necklace.