Thoughts on Friend - Conversational AI pendant to combat loneliness

One day tech people will understand that Black Mirror isn't something we should aspire to.

I definitely have quite a few thoughts:

• It's super cool to have an idea and see it to fruition, especially cool to see new hardware popping up
• But I think LLM-based hardware is in a VERY precarious situation due to all these issues surrounding Humane and Rabbit, so consumer expectations are much much higher
• Avi has good Twitter clout but I don't see the founder-product fit, he previously made/helped make 2 very popular and socially positive web apps but has (seemingly) no hardware experience (unlike Palmer Luckey of Oculus for example)
• I think the video has super high production value but I'm skeptical it works anywhere close to how it currently functions; it could be a look into the future, but due to the above consumer expectation, unsure if that's a good idea
• The pricing is too low for what you get; even if it functions just like ChatGPT, $99 for infinite inference to Whisper & a GPT3.5-4 level model seems wild
• Buying a domain for $1.8 on a payment plan is either playing 4D chess (if the product exceedingly delivers) or a bit silly if it flops; risk it for the biscuit ig haha

My thoughts:

• I commend the progress and launch. The fact that someone built this is very cool. This is why Silicon Valley is awesome!
• The launch video is well-made and elicits a strong reaction. Not necessarily optimistic feelings, but it's been great marketing.
• This device is not at all about productivity or utility. It's about combatting loneliness. So for the vast majority of people, this isn't solving a hair-on-fire problem. Vitamins don't sell nearly as well, especially from an unknown hardware company.
• The product is shockingly cheap, especially since they'll probably have substantial LLM costs for processing so many conversations.
• Given the above, I'd be worried about the long-term viability of the company. Most startups fail quickly, and even more for hardware products. I don't want to buy it and then the product gets killed shortly after.

Interesting idea; more interesting if it was a robotic agent.

Could be viable, for specific occasions. After all, in Japan, you could hire someone to eat lunch with you or go on a date and forget it afterwards. Very niche but still some $$?

I think the fact that this thing is with you all the time isn’t actually good. You don’t want a friend to be watching everything you do in real life. We make time to do stuff together with our friends. So I feel like it should be a limited usage thing if it’s going after that angle?

A b2b angle: offer restaurants a tool that could talk to single-diners and talk to them about their day. Could be interesting for places like ichiran. The engagement is only for as long as they are there at the restaurant.