Earlier this year, Avi Schiffman’s poster campaign for his brand Friend—an AI-pendant promising to “listen, respond, and support you”—was vandalised almost as soon as it hit New York’s subway walls. Yet while critics mocked the idea of an artificial ‘friend,’ Schiffman smiled; the backlash was part of the plan. In this video, we unpack the loneliness epidemic, what friendship looks like under neoliberalism, and why AI companionship is becoming appealing in a world that worships convenience and rejects friction.

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timestamps:

00:00 intro04:00 loneliness & the internet10:34 anti-social media17:22 frictionless friendship22:05 is it all just rage bait?29:30 our conflict avoidance crisis