Making friends with AI
A wearable device powered by artificial intelligence aims to become its wearer’s best friend. The Friend necklace is always listening to its user and connects to their phone to send messages to them.
It uses AI to build a unique personality that’s tailored to each owner and will answer questions and reply to comments, as well as send unprompted messages based on what it’s heard.
The Friend was invented by 21-year-old Avi Schiffman, who created the first website to track Covid-19 cases in the US. But the AI companion has raised questions about privacy and whether it’s the right way to address the problems of loneliness.
Jodi Halpern, Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at UC Berkeley, told the WIRED website: “When we don’t know how another person thinks, that stretches us. It’s the gaps in either being understood or understanding another person that are true opportunities to develop this drive towards knowing more. We don’t want a perfectly smooth, frictionless thing as a relationship.”
Find out more about the Friend.
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