Earlier that day I had unboxed my Friend, a small white plastic circle which looked and was packaged like an Apple product — all glimmering white and no right angles — and connected it to my phone. By pressing on and speaking into the $129 glowing orb around my neck, I could talk to my Friend, which uses generative AI to respond with text in a dedicated app. Part art project, part AI assistant, it's a wearable device that started shipping late this summer and that, unlike my human friends who