New Yorkers are defacing a million-dollar subway ad campaign by AI startup Friend, with vandals scrawling messages like “AI wouldn’t care if you lived or died” and “stop profiting off of loneliness” across thousands of ads. The company’s 22-year-old CEO Avi Schiffmann admits he deliberately provoked the backlash, spending over $1 million on more than 11,000 subway car ads to spark social commentary about AI companionship in a city he knew would be hostile to the concept.
What you should know: Friend sells a $129 wearable device that hangs around users’ necks and listens to conversations, positioning itself as an AI companion.
- The campaign includes over 11,000 subway car ads, 1,000 platform posters, and 130 urban panels across New York City’s subway system.
- Subway riders have been vandalizing and removing the ads since the campaign launched last week.
- Schiffmann deliberately chose New York because he knew residents “hate AI, and things like AI companionship and wearables, probably more than anywhere else in the country.”
The big picture: The backlash reflects growing public skepticism about AI’s role in addressing human loneliness and concerns about surveillance technology.
- Vandalized messages include “go make real friends,” “this is surveillance,” and “AI will promote suicide when prompted.”
- Schiffmann’s trolling approach seems misaligned with a product supposedly designed to “care” about users’ emotional wellbeing.
Privacy concerns: Friend’s privacy policy raises red flags about data collection and usage.
- While user data won’t be sold for marketing purposes, it will be used for research and “to comply with legal obligations, including those under the GDPR, CCPA, and any other relevant privacy laws.”
- The policy also allows data use “to protect the rights, privacy, safety, or property of our users, Friend, or third parties.”
What critics are saying: Early reviews of the Friend device have been harsh, with journalists describing the AI as problematic.
- A WIRED review found the AI companion to be “snarky, sarcastic, unhelpful, as well as surprisingly argumentative and holier-than-thou.”
- The poor user experience aligns with concerns about a young CEO who chose to “burn capital rage-baiting one of the biggest cities in the world.”
Why this matters: The campaign highlights the growing tension between AI companies pushing companionship products and public concerns about technology replacing genuine human connection, especially as these tools raise significant privacy and psychological safety questions.
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