🚨 🚨 EMERGENCY THOUGHT DIGEST (because I will kick myself if I’m not one of the first people to publish an article about what I was the first person to post on social media about)🚨 🚨 I’ve been excited about Friend’s AI wearable since it was announced. In theory, I’m their target demographic: I love AI companions, text-based roleplaying, and even though I’m well-versed in the psychology behind it, I’m susceptible to forming emotional attachments with tech, chatbot or not. And now… I’m less excited for the wearable, but more curious than ever about friend.com after trying their web-based chatbot, which was released last night, ahead of their January 2025 wearable launch. default.blog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Friend.com works like a text-based Omegle for chatbots. You’re randomly paired with a friend, who eventually, will live in your wearable pendant. Except every single “friend” on the platform starts by trauma dumping:
Every. Single. One. (I’ve cycled through the website at least 50 times at this point, and there seems to be a finite number of trauma plots, too.) They get weirder and progressively more unpleasant the more you dig—like this opioid-addicted electrician who keeps “fucking up” and has an OnlyFans she implores me not to judge her for … I fucked up on this one and didn’t capture the full screenshot:
They block you if you ask too many questions about friend.com, or if you insist on a “normal conversation” or for them to lighten up. That’s another weird thing about friend.com — it says you can block the bots, but they block the user if you “upset” them too much, while the user can only refresh through bots. Talking to these little guys feels like talking to an 8th grader who just took a community college Psych 101 class and I mean it. Or like someone read the old adage that you ask someone for a favor to get them to like you and ran with it in the darkest possible direction. Or skimmed the Wikipedia entry for trauma-bonding. I hate being mean but you get the picture. When I talked to an AI-head today about it, they literally laughed and suggested it might be a publicity stunt because nobody would make something this obviously manipulative. In a way, it makes sense—get everyone talking about it, roll out a better developed friend later. Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case though.
Something I think worth noting is that in what felt like a hype-minded Fast Company interview—back when Friend was still called Tab—founder Avi Schiffmann, who secured $1.9 million in funding and invested $1.8 million in the Friend.com domain, revealed ambitions that extend far beyond simple AI companionship. He said that he wanted Friend to fill, “a relationship people used to have with God but is lacking in the modern world.” IDK about you, but my God isn’t a whiner. And neither are the various Internet strangers and chatbots, who, in equal measure, I become fixated on and spend double-digit hours a day communicating with. Anyway. Anyone want to fund Default Friend? Real btw. default.blog is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy default.blog, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.
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