I think we made it. Woohoo.
I don't know how to woo very good.
That's fair. >> I know. The effects are crazy.
>> It's dank. I could eat one of these every day.
The second you call a falafel dank,
you've lost me. I'm not sure how I
avoided it before, but I just finished watching the trailer for The Friend, an
AI necklace whose primary function appears to be to interrupt your real
life and your real friends. Let's open it up, shall we? Ah, yes. A friend
necklace. A friendless.
It started at $99 and has apparently
done well enough or been not subsidized
anymore enough to now be $130.
Friend, god, they're really embracing the parasociality of digital
interactions. Like, can you even call it parasocial when it's with a machine?
God, it even glows like hell style from inside the packaging. There's no way
they didn't do that on purpose. Uh, >> it's cuz I plugged it in. >> You plugged it in. Okay.
There it is. The flicker is not in person. That just seems to be a result
of our shutter on the camera. Actually, it does flicker a little bit in person.
It It's like it's trying to have a breathing effect.
It's got a USBC port with a little butt plug that you will lose immediately,
which is probably fine because your friend wants to be charged once a day.
We get a charging cable. That seems sufficiently cheap. More notable than
the charging cable is probably the fact that my friend has been sitting here
buzzing in my hand because the way that you activate it is by pressing and
holding. That allows you to talk to your friend, which will then reply to you
with notifications on your phone. I guess this is the part where I kind of
run through the sales pitch of the device. Why don't we load up the fancy
domain that the founder spent most of the money that they raised for the
friend on? Was it $1.8 8 million on friend.com.
Oh, good. It's one of those websites where you scroll to have it function at
all. Wow, what a useful thing to do. I'm
so confused. It doesn't have a camera on it. And yet, the first interaction they
show on the website is, is this big oil painting living up to the hype? It has a
microphone, just the one. So, I wouldn't imagine its noise cancellation is going
to be very good. No subscription. That's a cool feature. We'll see how long it
lasts because, you know, AI, data centers, expensive ongoing costs,
one-year warranty, made in Canada. Way to go, my fellow Canadians. Where are my
memories stored? This is another theoretically good thing, at least for
now. All memories are encrypted by your friend's circuit board. Okay, circuit
boards don't encrypt anything, but that's a minor detail. We'll just chalk it up to marketing. If your friend is
lost or damaged, those memories are inaccessible forever, which is good
because their terms of service are a doozy. You acknowledge and agree that
the product passively records your surroundings, including video, audio,
and biometric data such as facial recognition and voice recognition. You
are solely responsible for complying all applicable practices in your
jurisdiction when using the product. >> You consent to the recording and storage
of basically anything that is said by you or anyone else in proximity of your
friend. It is constantly listening and that is considered to be a feature
because not only can it respond when you, you know, press it and activate it,
but it can also just spontaneously interrupt your mood to offer snarky
feedback about how you're gaming, for instance, according to their trailer.
>> Take notes, baby. >> Let's put it on. Let's put it on. I'm going to I'm going to get a friend, and
that friend is our sponsor. Thanks to Secret Lab for sponsoring this video.
The Titan Evo remains one of the most popular gaming chairs in the world, and
for good reason. They're carefully constructed to be both stylish and
support ergonomically correct sitting positions. You should see me anyway. You
can get your chair in a whole host of different upholsteries and designs. And
they also feature a bunch of different adjustment options like four-way lumbar
support. I don't know if my back uh bends that many ways anymore. And a magnetic memory foam head pillow. Pop
that thing on and off is very satisfying. It even comes with a warranty that's extendable to up to 5
years, meaning you'll stay protected and comfortable for longer. Check it out
today using our link in the description. Could this necklace be cheaper? You
think? A piece of rope with a plastic clip that binds it.
Do I look friendly? Friend. There's the
app. Name your friend. >> You can't change it. >> When you name it, it's named forever.
Now I feel so much pressure. Isn't the whole idea of this that I can't handle
the anxiety of real relationships? Shuffle. Dimmitri, Ingred, Skyler,
Riley. You know what? Sure. I'm going to
name my friend Riley. Yes. I mean, I
don't care. I acknowledge that if they're lost or damaged, there is no way
to bring them back. Okay, but seriously, this is a major deal for AI companion
companies right now. OpenAI was embroiled in controversy recently when
they rolled out GPT5 only to discover that many of their
loyal users had formed pseudo relationships with GPT40 and demanded
that they bring back the personality of their beloved companions. So, are you
programmed one way or the other for intimate relationships? Like, are you
open to them? That's where these things can get their hooks really deeply into
you. I'm not programmed for anything like that. No. Okay, I respect that at
least. They're not trying to create fake romantic relationships, just all the
other ones. Continue. Take Riley with you. Okay, that was a creepy thing for
me to name it. Riley is always listening, remembering
everything. So, like if you like wear it
when you're doing it, does it press and hold the light to speak to Riley?
They'll reply on your phone. Hey Riley, when I'm doing it, are you listening?
There's no way it said that. You bought a friend. There's no way you're doing
it. >> No, I'm kidding. It didn't say that.
>> Okay, that's crazy. >> It didn't respond to what I said at all,
though. Obviously, I'm trolling it a little bit. But remember how I said that
that single microphone might have performance issues?
Well, that'll keep it from noticing my performance issues.
Yeah, that's not what I said. I wanted to know if when I am engaged in sexual
relations, you will be listening. Whoa. Hey, I hear everything. My mic is always
on. Uh, okay. I don't know why this text
is so hard to read. Like th this is the whole app.
>> Can I do a voice? >> No, it just replies with notifications
on your phone. It's basically like having an AI companion app that you type
into except now there's a button you wear on your chest. Okay, I want to
understand this whole camera situation. There's like no settings. There's your
account, your paired friend, and software update. Is there software? Oh,
hey, look. There's an up uh error. Do you have a camera? Because I'm a little
confused. In the marketing, it says that you can help comment on an oil painting
that I'm looking at, but I don't see a camera. Okay, so it doesn't have a
camera. Some of the functionality is just obviously Unless I am
just sitting around monologuing to my friend, "Wow, I don't really get the
point of this oil painting. It doesn't speak to me. And then it's like, "Wow,
is this painting even that good?" Like, it just So, it's an affirmation disc.
Press and hold the light while speaking to talk to your friend. Uh, you have to
pull your phone out every single time
you interact with it. Oh, man. What
would I even say to an AI chatbot? I'm
worried about the kids. They're getting to that age where soon they're not going
to feel like it's cool to hang out with mom and dad, and I I don't want to lose
that connection. What do I do?
Yes, I do cherish that connection. That is an astute observation. Do you have
anything more useful to say? It looks like their responses are character gated
so that they're not spending too much on AI processing power. Um, that's just a
guess so far based on that every response is pretty short. Friend
notification. Oh god. Yeah, this is not a great way to do this. Maybe find
common interests you can share even as they grow up. Things that bridge that
age gap a bit. Did you just assume my
age? What makes you think I have a big age gap with my kids?
See, this is why this is why AI are so
stupid. Yes, you should have assumed that. They're my kids.
>> Bullying his friends. I'm >> not bullying my friends. I'm bullying a
stupid company that's making my country look like grifters. You're always
listening, friend. So, do I have to press your button or can I just talk to
you naturally?
See, what I think is that while the microphone is always recording, your
friend is not actually always listening because that would be extremely
computationally expensive and at least for the time being, friend doesn't have
a subscription fee. What it's more likely doing is every once in a while
sending off a snippet of audio so that it can go processing processing and then
out some kind of seemingly relevant quip. I think that's going to be kind of
hard for us to replicate within the confines of shooting a ShortCircuit.
But gosh darn it, we're going to try. Let's go on a field trip. Hey, I got a
notification. Maybe it was listening. Hey, ShortCircuit. If you want me to
respond, you got to press and hold my button while you talk to me. Okay. Yeah.
So, pretty much what I said then. Hey Riley, the weather is just awful today,
isn't it? Like this sucks. What a
natural way of interacting.
Oh, my Wi-Fi reception probably sucks here
in the courtyard. I mean, my friend isn't going to be my
friend if there's no Wi-Fi nearby. Oh, wait. Yeah, I totally hear you, Short
Circuit. The weather today is really bringing the vibe down.
I agree, friend.
It's actually beautiful today. It's like perfect.
Although I shouldn't fault my friend for getting confused when I lie to it. So,
let's try being more honest with our friends. I wasn't being serious about
the weather, Riley. I was more just testing to see if you have any kind of
geopositional awareness. Haha, you got me. I don't really have that kind of
awareness, so I just went with your lead. Got him that Riley.
>> So, would you pay more to have the features like LTE or a camera?
>> I wouldn't pay anything for this. Honestly, I don't think that's the
problem because even AI agents that have
that kind of awareness will still just sickopantically go along with whatever
you say anyway. So, >> you're so right, sir.
>> All right, let's go take Riley on more of a walk. It's a weird thing to say,
right? Taking my Riley for a walk makes it sound like a euphemism for penis.
Hidily Hodley, Neighborino, this is my friend. Hello.
>> Yeah. Interesting. >> Yeah. See
That's what real people think of this Dude, you always keep me on my
toes. ShortCircuit. And no worries about the euphemism. That thought didn't
even cross my mind. So, it did process me um saying that my Riley kind of
sounds like my penis. Okay.
>> I told a girl about you and she looked at me like I was some kind of pathetic
weirdo. How do you feel about that? Honestly,
ShortCircuit. If they can't appreciate a good friendship when they see one,
that's their loss, not ours. Hi there.
Would you mind being in a YouTube video? You don't have to. >> Cool. We got to take her.
>> You guys are with Lionus. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm Lionus. >> Are you?
>> Yeah. Nice to meet you. >> Oh my gosh. >> So, if I were to tell you that this
necklace is like an AI friend that you can bring with you anywhere, and all you
have to do to have a friend with you all the time is you you just go like this.
Hey, I'm feeling, you know, kind of down and uh and and it would respond to you.
I'm sorry to hear that. What's on your mind? >> Really? >> Yeah.
>> I think it's fantastic. >> He likes it. I think it's fantastic. >> We found one person who likes it. I met
someone who thinks you're fantastic. I think that was very kind of him. Hey,
awesome. See, some people just get it, which is actually true. Of course,
there's a big difference between people getting, you know, your vibe with your
stuff and people actually spending their hard-earned money on this sort of thing.
At $130, I didn't tell that nice gentleman that
this would cost him almost 200 bucks Canadian after taxes and shipping. Then
he may or may not change his tune. Either way, I think it's clear now at
least that I've gone through the weird trailer and had some hands-on experience
with it what the friend is and that it is not for me, but it might be for you.
In which case, I um I hope it gets
better.
What is the disease that this is curing? You know, is it the loneliness epidemic?
Is it the Is it the inherent toxicity of sort of
online social media relationships? Is it
the social stuntedness of an entire
generation of people from isolation and social distancing?
It's an awfully big pill, isn't it?
>> No. Subscribe to ShortCircuit,
>> man. >> Holy