{"id":9657,"date":"2025-10-20T17:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9657\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T17:44:07","slug":"the-friend-ai-pendants-creator-publicized-a-friend-protest-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9657\/","title":{"rendered":"The Friend AI pendant\u2019s creator publicized a \u2018Friend protest\u2019 in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you live in NYC, there\u2019s almost no way you\u2019ve missed the Friend AI pendant subway ad fallout<\/a> \u2014 whether you\u2019ve taken pictures of the most inspired graffiti on the ads in the tunnels, tried to avert your eyes from the near-constant presence of the device pictured on all the ads inside subway cars, or had a friend text you, \u201cWhat is that thing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Friend was founded in 2023, the $129 chatbot-enabling necklaces only began shipping this summer, and the accompanying subway ad campaign \u2014 which set the company back more than $1 million<\/a>, almost as much as its domain name<\/a> \u2014 debuted last month. Reviews have painted a picture of a device that can make people uncomfortable and doesn\u2019t often work well at what it\u2019s supposed to do<\/a> (i.e., listen to your conversations and the happenings of your day and offer quips and feedback).<\/p>\n

On the same weekend as the worldwide No Kings protests, there was also a Friend protest of sorts. Friend founder Avi Schiffmann posted<\/a> an image of a taped-up flyer that pictured the device, which read, \u201cI heard you new yorkers got beef with me. Let\u2019s hash this out once and for-all, before we go bankrupt.\u201d The flyer also gave a time and place to meet up, along with a handwritten missive to \u201cbring your markers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on images and videos that probably weren\u2019t generated by Sora, the Sunday \u201cevent\u201d really did take place. Schiffmann\u2019s post shows people using Sharpies to deface a Friend banner, including one person writing, \u201cFuck AI\u201d; a chalk drawing of a sad-faced Friend device; and people seeming to play basketball while holding a paper or cardboard cut-out of the Friend device.<\/p>\n

When reached for comment on whether Friend organized the protest and whether the attendees were organic, Schiffmann told The Verge that he had no part in planning the event, adding that he took a red-eye flight to New York to be there because people sent him photos of the ads.<\/p>\n

\u201dDuring the event I was up on the soapbox speaking to the crowd and later that night found them at the park and we all sat in a big circle and talked. They were all very serious,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI found it to be a productive conversation and we all shook hands at the end. It was a real protest for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schiffmann also posted a photo<\/a> in which he seemed to have signed a handwritten document stating that he \u201cwill not sell friend.com\u201d to Big Tech CEOs for \u201csurveillance purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another video<\/a> in the thread depicted people holding the paper cut-out of the device and tearing it apart as the crowd chanted, \u201cGet real friends.\u201d After the free-for-all of tearing it up was over, people yelled, \u201cGet that shit out of here,\u201d and \u201cFuck AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short: New Yorkers don\u2019t take kindly to overzealous subway ads \u2014 especially if they\u2019re about AI being a passable replacement for a \u201cfriend.\u201d And for Friend\u2019s CEO, that\u2019s still better than them not paying attention at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you live in NYC, there\u2019s almost no way you\u2019ve missed the Friend AI pendant subway ad fallout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3250,8079,9,12,56,63,65,64,8080],"class_list":["post-9657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ai","tag-gadgets","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-wearable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}