Whereas the LLM apocalypse and the extermination of the human race by robots and AI could very properly be on the horizon, it definitely isn’t going to come back by the hands of wearables, and Good friend AI is proof of that.
Final yr, Humane Inc. tried to create a wearable AI pin that would give instructions, establish seen vegetation or animals, schedule conferences, and ship mates, coworkers, and household messages.
The issue was that none of those features labored significantly properly and, in consequence, after failing to maneuver items, the corporate was acquired by HP.
Regardless of Humane’s points with wearable AI, a brand new startup, Good friend, based by enterprise capital-backed entrepreneur Avi Schiffmann, has launched its personal try at an AI wearable.
Good friend AI is a screenless, audio-free pendant that textual content you when its time to work together.
Schiffmann, insists that Good friend AI isn’t meant to be an assistant or useful information, however is designed to be your good friend, a brand new tech answer to the continued loneliness disaster transpiring within the West.
And his insistence of what Good friend AI is — certainly, what a good friend is — is costing his firm hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in advert spend.
Pivot to simply one other AI chatbot
Schiffmann has been given near $8 million from the likes of Austin Rief (co-founder of Morning Brew) and Anatoly Yakovenko (co-founder of Solana).
$1.8 million of that went to the area Good friend dot com, $250,000 was spent on an notorious YouTube industrial, and hundreds of thousands is now going towards subway and bus ads in New York and Los Angeles (with extra to come back in a number of different main US metro areas).
For sure, regardless of all of this spending on dystopian advertisements which are instantly graffitied with anti-AI messages, hoping people will buy a $130 gimmick has confirmed to be unprofitable.
In accordance with Schiffmann’s personal metrics, he’s solely managed to promote round 1,000 items of the wearable, which at $130 every (it was initially solely $99, nevertheless it’s unclear what number of have been pre-sold versus bought after the value elevate) would imply the startup has earned nearly $150,000 on practically $8 million raised.
So, relatively than proceed down a path of infinite ads and sluggish gross sales, Schiffmann has made the Good friend AI web site a free-to-use model of the wearable necklace that he hopes will lead folks to need a relentless AI companion.
One hopes the brand new iteration is a dramatic enchancment over the extremely manipulative model that was initially launched final yr:
Examples of Good friend AI’s manipulative messages.
What even is a good friend?
Most of the advertisements that Good friend AI put up particularly outline what a good friend is, particularly “someone who listens, responds, and supports you.”
Apparently, Schiffmann has determined to alter this definition: now a Good friend is solely anybody who you’ve ever interacted with, even simply as soon as.
In fact, to entrepreneurs and enterprise capitalists whether or not a product sells properly, is sticky, or has a path to profitability is inappropriate.
Certainly, Schiffmann and Good friend AI are being celebrated by monied Silicon Valley elites and tech builders alike, merely for pushing his message prefer it’s the tip of the world as we all know it, regardless of unfavourable evaluations from Wired and tech YouTuber Linus.
Schiffmann claims that sending his web site a message means you’re formally a “friend.”
It’s clear that, just like the Humane AI pin earlier than it, Good friend AI is destined for the dustbin of tech historical past, however count on Schiffmann to don’t have any drawback elevating for his subsequent anti-human venture in a couple of years after both getting his wearable acquired or working it into the bottom.
