--- title: "Cocky AI CEO Does Photoshoot in Front of His Subway Ads That Got Relentlessly Vandalized" description: "Friend's 22-year-old CEO Avi Schiffmann posed for a photoshoot in front of his startup's defaced ads, relishing in the attention." date: "2025-10-07" modified: "2025-10-07" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/friend-ceo-photoshoot-ads" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" --- # Cocky AI CEO Does Photoshoot in Front of His Subway Ads That Got Relentlessly Vandalized ![Friend's 22-year-old CEO Avi Schiffmann posed for a photoshoot in front of his startup's defaced ads, relishing in the attention.]() *Avi Schiffmann via X / Futurism* Last month, AI startup Friend launched an eyebrow-raising advertising campaign in the New York City subway, which [drew a striking amount of hatred](). The largely white billboards left a convenient amount of room for passersby to air their feelings about the privacy-infringing tech. As such, it didn't take long for [handwritten scribbles to cover the ads](). "Befriend something alive," one pen-wielding tagger [wrote](). "AI wouldn’t care if you lived or died," another vandal [raged](). "AI will promote suicide when prompted, it is NOT YOUR 'FRIEND,'" [reads]() another graffito. The company recently launched its controversial AI gadget, which is designed to [constantly listen to you via a microphone]() and send snarky AI texts to your smartphone. Now, Friend's 22-year-old CEO Avi Schiffmann isn't just doing a photoshoot in front of the defaced ads for [photos featured in *The Atlantic*]() — he's relishing the attention his company has been getting as of late. Schiffmann told the magazine that the backlash was part of Friend's plan. The ads were allegedly meant to provoke a conversation. "The picture of the billboard is the billboard," he said. "Nothing is sacred anymore, and everything is ironic," he added, a cringeworthy missive he**'s** repeated in [several]() [other interviews](). https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1975339062207693134 The CEO also denied the company was involved in graffitiing the billboards, a theory inspired by mysteriously verbatim phrases found on multiple of the company's ads. Last year, Friend [sparked a major discussion]() surrounding the use of generative AI to replace human connection after [sharing a "reveal" video](), which featured a woman who spoke to a pendant-like device around her neck and asked it for life advice. "This is officially the most dystopian advertisement I've ever seen," one YouTube commenter wrote. "Congratulations, you absolute sociopaths." Since then, tech journalists at a [number of]() [publications]() have given the device a whirl, finding that it not only [leaves a lot to be desired]() from a features standpoint, but [willingly antagonizes]() its wearer as well. That's besides the [dystopian privacy implications]() of a device that'**s** constantly listening to everything you — and everybody around you — happens to say. Schiffmann told *The Atlantic* that the pendant wasn't meant to replace "any relationship in your life." Instead, it could be a new category — an amalgamation of your therapist, best friend, and journal. "This is what I said a while ago, and I don’t think a lot of people liked it, but I would say that the closest relationship this is equivalent to is talking to a god," he boasted to *The Atlantic*. Whether the Friend pendant will ever turn into a meaningful business remains to be seen, especially considering the outpouring of hatred the company's New York City subway campaign has received. In other words, it tests the adage that any press is good press. Shiffman, for his part, is sticking with a weird explanation: that it's actually cheaper for Friend if fewer people use it. "Profitability is ideal," Schiffmann [told *Fortune*]() last week, "but right now it costs me an unfathomable amount of money if you actually use the product." Meanwhile, the 22-year-old is already preparing for the worst. His company's offering would certainly not be the first generative AI wearable to crash and burn in spectacular fashion. "I think one day we’ll probably be sued, and we’ll figure it out," he told *Fortune*. "It’ll be really cool to see." **More on Friend:** [*AI “Friend” Startup Overwhelmed With Hatred*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()