A lot of people have been talking about "friend.com" because they spent a ton of money on ads in every major city.

myrmepropagandist

Make me a magic phone that has no ads on it. That is the product I want. I don't need to install ad blockers and keep updating them. It just makes every single ad go away.

I would pay for that. That would be the "mental health tech" that I would go for.

Easy right?

LMAO

myrmepropagandist

I do find the style of the ads superficially appealing. I love ads with a lot of white space. But I think that's just because it makes me think maybe I'm not going to have to see an advertisement.

Quinn Norton

@futurebird they're targeting lonely people without community or social support. That's not you, but statistically that's most Americans, especially the young ones.

Quinn Norton

@futurebird it's deeply cynical, and could very possibly work on more people than I'd like to admit.

myrmepropagandist

@quinn

I can't see anyone having that thing on in public. It's the same issue as the glasses with cameras in them. It's spying on everyone with the microphones, and it screams "I HAVE NO FRIENDS"

Quinn Norton

@futurebird I think it's most likely going to fail because our phones already do most of this anyway and existing ai companies have already made friend agents power enough to drive us into psychosis anyway.

myrmepropagandist

@quinn

People would be less lonely if social media were more full of the real people they know and wanted to follow and less full of promoted posts and advertising.

Social media can be a part of a healthy social life. But I think many of the most popular aps have gotten so cluttered and detached from doing that they are making things worse.

myrmepropagandist

@quinn

This. There is a market for using AI as an unhealthy substitute for real human interaction.

But I think most people won't want to advertise they are doing it with a necklace that makes you look like an escaped patient from a black mirror readjustment clinic.

Quinn Norton

@futurebird I... Just don't know. It could be a form of self expression for some people. Probably never huge, but, the glasses are coming back successfully. Also apparently in workplace mandates? More surveillance.

Fish Id Wardrobe

@futurebird a Guardian reporter spent a week wearing one. it went pretty much as you would expect. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/22/im-suddenly-so-angry-my-strange-unnerving-week-with-an-ai-friend

Lien Rag

@futurebird There is no such thing as bad publicity.

myrmepropagandist

@fishidwardrobe

“Tell it I don’t want it recording anything I say,” says my (human) friend, Lee.

“Tell him yourself,” I say, holding up Leif to his face. Leif assures Lee that he will only record if I am pressing the button. Everyone agrees they think Leif is lying.

I email Schiffmann to ask him if Leif’s reassurances are true. They’re not. “Friends are always listening,”

myrmepropagandist

@quinn

Ok what if they did a rebrand and made a "chastity friend"

"The Christian AI that keeps you following Jesus."

Might make more headway with that one?

Mike Johnson was bragging about the anti-porn app he and his son had to use together for some reason...

JWcph, Radicalized By Decency

@quinn @futurebird I'm gonna need receipts for that "successful smartglasses" thing (I mean, not from you; you're under no obligation to internet randos ) - heck, as far as I can tell not even smartwatches are anywhere close to as successful as Apple clearly thought they would be, even though a lot of people do have them. As for the glasses, I've literally only seen Mark Zuckerberg wear them & I think the only demo for them is people who think MZ is cool. So nobody.