Chatbot Pendant Sparks NYC Subway Protests

21 Oct 2025 The Friend wearable — a $129 “chatbot-enabling” pendant from a startup founded in 2023 — has been the center of an unusually loud backlash in New York after the company spent roughly $1 million on a subway ad campaign that rolled out last month. Reviews and coverage have described the device as often failing at its core promise (listening to your day and offering quips) and making people uncomfortable; the ads, plastered across subway cars and tunnels, became a visible target for criticism and graffiti. Over the weekend following the worldwide No Kings protests, Friend founder Avi Schiffmann posted a photo of a taped-up flyer inviting New Yorkers to “hash this out once and for-all, before we go bankrupt,” telling attendees to “bring your markers.” Images and videos (shared by Schiffmann) show people using Sharpies to deface a Friend banner, sketching a sad-faced device in chalk, tearing apart paper cutouts of the pendant and chanting “Get real friends” and “Fuck AI.” Schiffmann told The Verge he didn’t organize the event but flew to New York to speak on a soapbox, later signing a handwritten note claiming he “will not sell friend.com” to Big Tech for “surveillance purposes.” The episode underlines how public unease about AI and intrusive advertising can quickly become a viral, physical protest. Source