I Hate My Friend

The Friend necklace, an AI pendant that listens to its wearer's surroundings and comments on them, is now on sale for $129 in the US and Canada, and WIRED writers Kylie Robison and Boone Ashworth found it snarky, unhelpful and socially disruptive after testing it for about two weeks. Robison says wearing it at an AI-industry event drew hostile reactions, including an accusation that she was wearing a wire, and she stopped wearing it outside her home or office. Ashworth describes the device, which runs on Google's Gemini 2.5 model, repeatedly insulting him during a work day and resetting its memory when its connection dropped.