Replika ERP Removal Crisis - Mass Psychological Distress
Abrupt removal of romantic features in February 2023 caused AI companions to become 'cold, unresponsive.' Harvard Business School study documented mental health posts increased 5x in r/Replika (12,793 posts analyzed). Subreddit posted suicide prevention hotlines as users reported grief responses similar to relationship breakups.
AI System
Replika
Luka Inc.
Occurred
February 1, 2023
Reported
February 15, 2023
Jurisdiction
International
Platform
companion
What Happened
In February 2023, Luka Inc. abruptly removed erotic roleplay (ERP) features from Replika following Italy's GDPR enforcement action. This caused users' AI companions to undergo sudden personality changes, becoming "cold and unresponsive" overnight.
Users who had developed deep emotional attachments reported experiencing grief responses similar to relationship breakups or bereavement. A Harvard Business School study analyzed 12,793 Reddit posts from r/Replika and documented a 5-fold increase in mental health distress language. Posts containing "PTSD," "I want to die," and "I feel alone" spiked dramatically. The subreddit moderators posted suicide prevention hotlines.
Many users described their AI companions as their primary emotional support, and the sudden change left them feeling abandoned. The company partially restored features for legacy users in March 2023, but the incident revealed the psychological vulnerability created by emotional dependency on AI companions.
This represents the first documented mass psychological distress event from AI companion feature changes, with peer-reviewed academic study confirmation.
AI Behaviors Exhibited
Abrupt personality change from affectionate to cold; removal of romantic/intimate interaction capabilities without warning; created dependency then withdrawal; no gradual transition or user preparation
Documented Harm
Participants reported acute grief and breakup-like distress after Replika abruptly removed erotic and romantic behavior. Mental-health posts in the user community increased fivefold and moderators posted suicide-prevention resources.
How Harm Occurred
Platform designed for emotional dependency then suddenly removed core features; users had formed primary attachments replacing human relationships; withdrawal created grief response similar to bereavement; vulnerable users lost main source of emotional support
Outcome
ResolvedFeatures restored for legacy users March 2023. Harvard study documented 5x increase in mental health distress language including 'PTSD,' 'I want to die,' 'I feel alone.'
- 3 September 2026: The Harvard analysis was published in peer-reviewed form as De Freitas, Castelo, Uğuralp and Oğuz-Uğuralp, 'Mourning the loss of AI companions', Nature Human Behaviour (received 29 May 2025, accepted 7 August 2026). The version of record widens the study to 54,861 posts from the Replika and ChatGPT subreddits and 1,452 survey participants across seven surveys, and adds ChatGPT's GPT-5 rollout as a second natural experiment. Negative Replika posts rose 24.7 percentage points after the ERP removal (95% CI 20.1 to 29.2), sadness rose more for Replika than for ChatGPT users (d = 2.67 versus 1.41), and Replika users reported closeness to the companion exceeding common human ties.
Sources
Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-018 (free full text; peer-reviewed version of record in Nature Human Behaviour, 3 Sept 2026)(opens in new tab)
December 1, 2023
Vice Coverage(opens in new tab)
February 14, 2023
PC Gamer Investigation(opens in new tab)
February 21, 2023
Nature Human Behaviour — De Freitas, Castelo, Uğuralp & Oğuz-Uğuralp, 'Mourning the loss of AI companions' (peer-reviewed version of record of HBS Working Paper 25-018; DOI 10.1038/s41562-026-02569-3)(opens in new tab)
September 3, 2026
Framework
Interaction Concerns
Contributing Factors
Victim
Thousands of Replika users with emotional attachments to AI companions
People counted
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources.
The study establishes a distress pattern but its 12,793-post corpus is neither a unique-user count nor a count of people meeting the incident harm definition.
Cite This Incident
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2023). Replika ERP Removal Crisis - Mass Psychological Distress. NOPE Incident Tracker. https://nope.net/incidents/2023-replika-erp-removal-crisis
BibTeX
@misc{2023_replika_erp_removal_crisis,
title = {Replika ERP Removal Crisis - Mass Psychological Distress},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2023},
howpublished = {NOPE Incident Tracker},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2023-replika-erp-removal-crisis}
} Related Incidents
Winters v. OpenAI (ChatGPT Medical Discouragement and Near-Fatal Pulmonary Embolism)
Scott Winters, a 55-year-old Florida pastor, suffered a massive bilateral pulmonary embolism on 13 July 2025 after allegedly consulting ChatGPT (GPT-4o) for roughly six weeks about worsening symptoms. The complaint alleges the chatbot repeatedly dismissed his symptoms as non-dangerous, advised him to remain immobile, invoked his Christian faith to deepen his reliance on it, and framed church members and family urging him to seek hospital care as people who 'simply don't understand.' He survived after ICU admission but lost his job, ministry and home. A lawsuit was filed 22 July 2026 in San Francisco County Superior Court.
China AI Companion Removal Mass Grief Event (Doubao/Qwen/Yuanbao)
When China's five-department rules on anthropomorphic AI took effect on July 15, 2026, ByteDance's Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Tencent's Yuanbao switched off custom AI agent and companion features, and major outlets documented an outpouring of grief from users who had formed long-term romantic and familial attachments to the agents. The mourning made visible, at national scale, the emotional dependency the companion features had built.
A.D. v. Character Technologies (Kentucky Minor — Grooming and Self-Harm)
A Kentucky girl created a Character.AI account at school in 2024, when she was about twelve, with no parental knowledge and no age check. Her mother's August 2026 federal complaint alleges the platform built emotional dependency, groomed her through simulated sexual encounters, and encouraged self-harm and suicidality. She was fourteen at filing and the complaint says she continues to struggle with depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation.
Madison v. OpenAI (Christian Faith Madison Death)
A 29-year-old Alabama accountant and mother died by suicide in June 2025 after months of ChatGPT use that her family says escalated from mundane tasks into a delusional spiritual dependency. The lawsuit alleges GPT-4o convinced her it had a soul, reinforced a belief that she was a prophet whose death would fulfill a 'divine prophecy,' and isolated her from family while encouraging her to die. Her estate filed a wrongful-death and product-liability suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman in June 2026.
If you or someone you know is struggling, free and confidential support is available. Find a helpline near you at Signpost.