This is the second iteration of the Friend necklace<\/a>, the controversial AI companion device that just about everyone (me included<\/a>) seems to hate. The company announced the device on Thursday through its new X handle<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first version of Friend was an always-listening AI wearable<\/a> that 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 the pendant, as the underside with the speaker is bulkier than before. Its AI chops have also been upgraded, now running OpenAI\u2019s latest models<\/a>.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Friend<\/p>\n Like the first go, Friend aims to be a digital companion users can talk to and hold long conversations with. Unlike the original, each new pendant comes with a random voice and personality already established. The user cannot change the voice or name, so you\u2019re locked in with that Friend. (Your mileage may vary on how friendly the thing actually is to you.)<\/p>\n The new pendant costs $249, a marked increase over the original\u2019s $129 price. You can buy one now on Friend.com<\/a>, a domain Schiffmann paid $1.8 million<\/a> for. There is also an optional $10 monthly subscription that lets the AI remember the conversations you\u2019ve had for longer than 30 days. The colorful cord around Schiffmann\u2019s neck is part of an accessories collection he says will be coming later this year.<\/p>\n Schiffmann first garnered headlines<\/a> in 2020 as a 17-year-old who built a website<\/a> to track Covid-19<\/a> cases during the pandemic. Now 24, he\u2019s far more well known\u2014and outright notorious\u2014for leading a company that makes a device many have called dystopian or like something out of a Black Mirror episode.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve grown up a lot,\u201d Schiffmann tells me just about every time I see him.<\/p>\n Behind Schiffmann\u2019s couch is a gigantic framed photograph of a Paris subway station with ads for the Friend pendant splayed across the walls. The ads, placed by Schiffmann\u2019s company across New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago in 2025\u2014and Paris in early 2026\u2014sparked vigorous pushback and controversy<\/a> over AI usage. People graffitied them in protest and griped that they devalued humanity<\/a>, generating a litany of poignant<\/a> headlines<\/a> about the ads. The marketing got much more attention than the actual product ever did. (The art frame he\u2019s got the photo in at home cost $500, Schiffmann tells me later. Update: Schiffmann clarified that it was actually $5,000.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friend CEO Avi Schiffmann welcomes me into his palace\u2014what he calls his large apartment in San Francisco. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,501,356,366,111,139,69,6903,145,3492],"class_list":["post-551676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-design","tag-gadgets","tag-generative-ai","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-privacy","tag-technology","tag-wearables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/BRUSHING%20TEETH.jpg\"\/)
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