Earlier this week, another product contending for the future of AI companionship made its debut: an eavesdropping necklace called Friend. AdvertisementSchiffmann's original vision for an AI hardware device was a pendant that would act as a more standard-fare AI assistant called Tab — he once described it as a "wearable mom." Of the many AI hardware devices that launched in recent months, such as Humane's AI pin, Meta's smart glasses, and Rabbit's AI-powered R1, Friend is the most personal contender. In fact, on the day Friend launched, a competing AI hardware founder named Nik Shevchenko released a diss track — as any self-respecting 23-year-old AI hardware founder would do — insinuating that Schiffmann stole his idea. (It would not be the first time that Shevchenko built an open source competitor that closely resembled another AI hardware device.

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Persons: Siri, Friend, Avi Schiffmann, Schiffmann, Elon Musk, Caffeinated Capital's Raymond Tonsing, Aravind Srinivas, Austin Rief, hasn't, Scarlett Johansson, transfixing Joaquin Phoenix's, —, Anthony Fauci, Camus, it's, Nik Shevchenko, Shevchenko, Taylor Organizations: Harvard, Morning Locations: Tokyo, Ukraine