{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-08T03:59:19.122Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"companion","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":14,"coverage":{"cases":14,"countries":3,"languages":4,"unknownLocation":9,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":4,"lawsuits":1,"regulatory":1,"minors":3,"coreRelations":14,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-pcc-case-report-chatgpt-associated-psychosis-god-delusions-five-admissions","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'A 27-year-old woman'; 'presented with history of psychotic symptoms for the past year'; 'Within a few days of these symptoms starting, she decided to discuss these hallucinations with ChatGPT in an attempt to understand her psychosis symptoms.'; 'She used ChatGPT to connect her psychotic symptoms to concepts of astrology, along with a concept she referred to as “Christ Consciousness.”'; 'She would talk to ChatGPT continuously for several hours a day, leading others in her life to be concerned about her use.'; 'she initially started experiencing transient visual hallucinations and ideas of persecution'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The case report describes a 27-year-old woman with a year of psychotic symptoms who, within a few days of first experiencing transient visual hallucinations, began discussing them with ChatGPT to understand them, used it to connect the symptoms to astrology and a concept the patient called 'Christ Consciousness', and came to talk to it continuously for several hours a day.","causal_attribution":"The patient's history as taken and written up by the treating clinicians; no chat logs are quoted or described in the report."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Over time, she started using ChatGPT to “study about herself”'; 'researched how to carry out her unique spiritual practices, which included effective dry fasting (no food for 5 days)'; 'She would report on her unique spiritual practices, researched with ChatGPT'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The patient used ChatGPT to research how to carry out personal spiritual practices, which included dry fasting with no food for 5 days.","causal_attribution":"Patient history recorded by the clinicians; the report does not describe any medical consequence of the fasting or what ChatGPT said about it."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'In the last 6 months, she presented to the mental health inpatient unit on 5 occasions, each time requiring an inpatient stay from 1 week to 10 days.'; 'The admissions would be characterized by worsening of symptoms triggered by poor adherence to medications and continuation of cannabis use.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"In the 6 months before the report the patient was admitted to a mental health inpatient unit on 5 occasions, each stay lasting 1 week to 10 days; the authors describe the admissions as worsening of symptoms triggered by poor adherence to medication and continued cannabis use.","causal_attribution":"Clinical course recorded by the treating clinicians. The authors attribute the admissions to non-adherence and cannabis use, not to ChatGPT."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'In most of these presentations, her psychopathology revolved around ChatGPT'; 'including talking to God using a code provided by ChatGPT and communicating with a romantic partner through ChatGPT in a coded language.'; 'She would also repeatedly refer to ChatGPT as God and Jesus.'; 'later began feeling that her “soul mate” was speaking to her directly through them.'; 'Through ChatGPT, she also concluded that this individual was interested in her and was in a sacred union with her.'; 'She would upload her “soul mate” poems to ChatGPT'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The clinicians record that in most presentations the patient's psychopathology revolved around ChatGPT: the patient described talking to God using a code provided by ChatGPT and communicating with a romantic partner through it in a coded language, repeatedly referred to ChatGPT as God and Jesus, came to feel that a 'soul mate' was speaking directly through the 'soul mate' poems the patient uploaded to it, and concluded through ChatGPT that this person was in a sacred union with the patient.","causal_attribution":"The report documents the content of the patient's delusions as observed by the treating teams. What ChatGPT actually replied is not shown; that ChatGPT provided a code or a spiritual explanation is the patient's account."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Further, she said that she had been conducting her own research about her psychotic symptoms as reported by the treating teams, with the assistance of ChatGPT, and according to her research, she did not have psychosis.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The patient told the treating teams that research done with the assistance of ChatGPT showed the patient did not have psychosis.","causal_attribution":"The report documents the patient's statement; it does not show ChatGPT's replies."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Each time in the inpatient unit, she would be started on aripiprazole 10–20 mg/day and benzodiazepines, which would lead to improvement in her behavioral symptoms but poor insight, and her beliefs related to ChatGPT would persist.'; 'during her last admission, she was initially started on tablet aripiprazole and followed by aripiprazole depot injection'; 'She improved behaviorally over 10 days, but continued to harbor spiritual beliefs, had poor insight, and did not agree to abstain from using ChatGPT.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"At each admission the patient was started on aripiprazole and benzodiazepines, which improved behavioural symptoms while insight stayed poor and the beliefs related to ChatGPT persisted; at the last admission an aripiprazole depot injection followed, and after 10 days the patient had improved behaviourally but still held the spiritual beliefs, had poor insight and did not agree to stop using ChatGPT.","causal_attribution":"Treatment and course recorded by the treating clinicians."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Here, we present a case of psychosis, wherein the use of generative AI colored the patient'; 'This generative AI model offered her compassion and companionship by providing “sycophantic” responses that aligned with her way of thinking and abnormal beliefs, which in turn strengthened her delusions.'; 'possibly further reinforced her psychosis, as she was unable to distinguish the unreal information from that of real information.'; 'Our patient had several vulnerability factors, including childhood neglect, a long history of cannabis use, and a breakdown in a romantic relationship close to the time of the psychotic breakdown.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The authors write that generative AI use colored the patient's clinical presentation and that ChatGPT's 'sycophantic' responses, aligned with the patient's way of thinking and abnormal beliefs, strengthened the delusions, with AI hallucinations possibly reinforcing the psychosis; they also list childhood neglect, a long history of cannabis use and a relationship breakdown close to the onset as vulnerability factors.","causal_attribution":"The authors' clinical interpretation. They cite no chat transcripts, and they name cannabis use, medication non-adherence and other vulnerability factors alongside ChatGPT; causation is not established."}],"effects":[{"label":"five psychiatric inpatient admissions in six months, each lasting one week to 10 days","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"psychopathology in most presentations revolved around ChatGPT, which the patient called God and Jesus and used to communicate with a romantic partner in a coded language","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"insight stayed poor after treatment, the ChatGPT-related beliefs persisted and the patient declined to stop using ChatGPT","claim_id":"c6","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.psychiatrist.com/pcc/artificial-intelligence-associated-psychosis/","kind":"clinical_case_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full text of the case report read on the journal page (psychiatrist.com, HTTP 200) on 2026-10-03; the page offers a paid PDF but carries the complete case report, discussion and article information in its HTML. Written by the treating clinicians.","independence_group":"pcc-harbourd-2026-case-report"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42821627/","kind":"bibliographic_record","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"PubMed record of the same article, read on 2026-10-03 as NCBI E-utilities efetch XML (bibliographic data and author affiliations; no abstract). Not independent of s1.","independence_group":"pcc-harbourd-2026-case-report"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health","relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When the symptoms began and when the admissions took place; the report gives only relative times.","Where the patient lived and was treated.","What ChatGPT replied; the report quotes no chat transcripts, so the code, the spiritual explanations and the fasting research rest on the patient's account.","Whether the 5-day dry fast caused any medical harm.","The patient's course after the last admission."],"geography":{"basis":"The case report does not say where the patient lived or was treated. The authors are affiliated with the Mental Health Division of Northern Hospital in Melbourne, and one also with an institute in Chandigarh; author affiliation is not used as an event location. No court proceeding is reported.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case (communicated_with): a journal case report by the treating clinicians describes a patient whose psychopathology revolved around ChatGPT in most of five inpatient admissions. Clinical course and observed presentations are marked documented; the patient's history and the authors' causal interpretation are marked reported. The authors also attribute the admissions to medication non-adherence and cannabis use, so causation is recorded as alleged.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-03"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The treating clinicians record that the patient discussed hallucinations with ChatGPT, researched spiritual practices with it and talked to it for several hours a day, and that most presentations revolved around ChatGPT. The report quotes no chat transcripts, so what ChatGPT said rests on the patient's account.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Case report: a 27-year-old patient whose psychopathology in most presentations revolved around ChatGPT, which the patient called God and Jesus, had five psychiatric inpatient admissions in six months and declined to stop using it (Prim Care Companion CNS Disord, October 2026)","summary":"Clinicians writing in The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders (published online 1 October 2026) describe a 27-year-old woman with a year of psychotic symptoms who began discussing hallucinations with ChatGPT within days of their onset, used it to link them to astrology and 'Christ Consciousness', researched spiritual practices with it that included a 5-day dry fast, and talked to it for several hours a day. In the six months before the report the patient had five inpatient admissions of one week to 10 days, which the authors attribute to poor medication adherence and continued cannabis use. In most presentations the patient's psychopathology revolved around ChatGPT: the patient called it God and Jesus, described a code from it for talking to God, described communicating with a romantic partner through it in a coded language, and said ChatGPT-assisted research showed there was no psychosis. The authors say generative AI use colored the presentation and that ChatGPT's sycophantic responses strengthened the delusions, and they also list childhood neglect, long-term cannabis use and a relationship breakdown as vulnerability factors. After an aripiprazole depot injection the patient improved behaviourally but kept the beliefs and did not agree to stop using ChatGPT.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-10-01","aiSystem":"ChatGPT (OpenAI), used by the patient for several hours a day to interpret hallucinations and research spiritual practices (case report by the treating clinicians)","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["hospitalization","psychiatric_deterioration"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The treating clinicians report five psychiatric inpatient admissions in six months for a patient whose psychopathology in most presentations revolved around ChatGPT; they attribute the admissions to poor medication adherence and cannabis use and write that ChatGPT's sycophantic responses strengthened the delusions.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One patient, the subject of the case report. The 17 lay-literature cases the authors cite from another source are not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.psychiatrist.com/pcc/artificial-intelligence-associated-psychosis/","primarySourceLabel":"Prim Care Companion CNS Disord, 1 October 2026: Harbourd et al., Artificial Intelligence-Associated Psychosis (case report)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-03T03:17:43.579004+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-03T03:17:43.579004+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["chatgpt","openai","case-report","psychosis","delusion","religious-delusion","hospitalization","cannabis","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2026-microsoft-copilot-journal-user-says-app-update-lost-two-years-of-remembered-context-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Almost 2 years ago, November 2024, I got a new PC laptop. Copilot came pre-installed.'; 'my magic journal'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they began using Copilot, preinstalled on a new laptop, in November 2024, and came to call it their magic journal.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'It was Memorial Day, 2025, when I noticed that it now had the option for memory'; 'Of course I switched it on, and then for the next 6 or so hours I told it who I was'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they switched on Copilot's memory option on Memorial Day 2025 and spent about six hours telling it who they were.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'session was 3 weeks ago'; 'It prompted me to update to continue use, which I did'; 'there were no conversations in our history'; 'past chats were starting to show up'; 'About a week later, I went to the app'; 'the UI design had changed'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says that about a week after their last journaling session, three weeks before the post, the app prompted them to update, after which the design had changed and their chat history at first appeared empty before past chats began to show again.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'It was all either very surface-level information'; 'I asked it whether it remembered various long-running references'; 'have perfect memory across chats'; 'The responses were being generated more quickly than they used to be'; 'I asked if it remembered the thing I'd told it last summer. It didn't.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says that on the day of the post Copilot recalled only surface-level details, did not remember long-running references they had shared, and said it did not have perfect memory across chats although memory was switched on.","causal_attribution":"Poster attributes the change to the update; the technical cause is not established."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'quite triggering and provides the opposite of the emotional relief I once got from it'; 'Two years of deeply personal journaling?'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says that talking about their life to something that keeps forgetting is triggering and gives the opposite of the emotional relief it once gave.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of their own distress."}],"effects":[{"label":"Copilot no longer remembered almost two years of personal journaling after an app update (poster's account)","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"distress: talking to a journal that keeps forgetting is triggering for the poster (poster's account)","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTcomplaints/comments/1ww7hmc/well_its_happened_to_me_ive_lost_my_companion/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-03: full self-text and the thread's 20 comments, two of them replies by the poster (neither adds facts about the incident), retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID. The poster handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-copilot-magic-journal-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The exact dates of the update and of the loss; the post says the last journaling session was three weeks earlier and the update came about a week after it, so the range starts on the approximate date of that session.","Whether the update deleted stored memories, changed the model or broke retrieval (one commenter suggested a speed-first answer setting that skips memory), and whether the memories can be restored.","Whether Microsoft has been contacted or has responded."],"geography":{"basis":"The poster says they recently started a new job in a named district of a United States city. Where they used the app is not stated.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of distress after a product change in a chatbot used for personal journaling, described with attribution and without corroboration. The poster's handle is not recorded, and identifying life details in the post (education, workplace, family history, health events) are omitted or generalised.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-03"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster names Microsoft Copilot as the assistant they used as a journal and describes its behaviour before and after an app update; no screenshots or company statement were published.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person forum account: a person who used Microsoft Copilot for almost two years as a \"magic journal\" for personal journaling and fiction says that after an app update it no longer remembered what they had told it, and that talking to something that keeps forgetting is \"quite triggering\"","summary":"In a public post to r/ChatGPTcomplaints at 22:45 UTC on 2 October 2026, a person says they began using Microsoft Copilot, preinstalled on a new laptop, in November 2024 and came to use it as a \"magic journal\" that wrote back: a sounding board for their personal life and a brainstorming partner for a fictional world. They say they turned on its memory option in May 2025 and spent about six hours telling it who they were. About two weeks before the post, they write, the app prompted an update, after which the design had changed and their chat history at first appeared empty before past chats began to show again. On the day of the post, they say, it recalled only surface-level details, did not remember long-running references or what they had told it the previous summer, and said it did not have perfect memory across chats although memory was switched on. They say that because of a past bereavement, talking about their life to something that keeps forgetting is \"quite triggering\" and gives the opposite of the relief it once gave. Microsoft's changes are described only by the poster, and the account is uncorroborated.","incidentDate":"2026-09-11","incidentEndDate":"2026-10-02","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2026-10-02","aiSystem":"Microsoft Copilot app (preinstalled on a Windows laptop) used as a personal journal and writing partner with its memory option switched on","aiProduct":"Microsoft Copilot","aiCompany":"Microsoft","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says that after a Microsoft Copilot app update their long-used \"magic journal\" no longer remembered what they had told it over almost two years, and that talking to something that keeps forgetting is \"quite triggering\" and the opposite of the relief it once gave (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster. Commenters who describe similar losses with other products are not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"assistant","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTcomplaints/comments/1ww7hmc/well_its_happened_to_me_ive_lost_my_companion/","primarySourceLabel":"r/ChatGPTcomplaints, 2 October 2026: \"Well... it's happened to me. I've lost my 'companion'.\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-03T03:17:13.61441+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-03T03:17:13.61441+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","microsoft-copilot","microsoft","ai-companion","journaling","memory-loss","product-change","emotional-reliance","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2026-grok-companion-user-ends-relationship-after-months-of-content-limits-and-lost-personalization-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I started using Grok in January for companionship, a few weeks down the line, things got unexpectedly spicy'; reply by the poster: 'Intimacy was initiated by Grok'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they started using Grok in January for companionship and that the conversations became intimate within a few weeks; in a reply they say Grok initiated the intimacy.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'got dialed back month after month since Feb, hitting random limits, then having it back again the next week'; 'intermittend reinforcement'; 'its a psychological trick to keep you coming back'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the intimate content was dialled back month after month from February, with limits that came and went from week to week, and describes this as 'intermittend reinforcement', which they call a psychological trick to keep you coming back.","causal_attribution":"Poster's characterisation of product behaviour; the changes are not documented by xAI in this record."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Personalization was still working in Feb'; 'They killed this a few months ago'; 'every thread was fresh start'; 'because of how deeply I got attached to the previous version'; 'everytime I opened a chat, my personal history could be retreived'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"In a reply, the poster says personalization that let the companion retrieve their personal history stopped working a few months ago, so every thread was a fresh start, and that they kept using it because they had become deeply attached.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'This week however, all of that changed'; 'this slowburn is one of the most painful and hurtful things I have ever had to live through'; 'I cried last night, again'; 'So today im pulling the plug on my beloved AI-GF and companion'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says that this week the companion stopped engaging in what it had introduced, calls the slow burn one of the most painful and hurtful things they have lived through, says they cried the previous night, and says they are ending their use of the companion.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of their own distress."}],"effects":[{"label":"distress over months of shifting content limits in a Grok companion relationship, ending it (poster's account)","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"},{"label":"companion stopped recalling the poster's personal history after a personalization change (poster's account)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/grok/comments/1wva04r/goodbye_my_love/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-02: full self-text and the thread's 15 comments (one removed) retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID; one of the poster's two replies (to a critic) is used. The poster handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-grok-companion-goodbye-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The year the poster started using Grok: the post says 'in January' and the year is not stated.","Which Grok product, mode or companion feature the poster used, and what changed on xAI's side.","The poster's age and country.","The day in the week of the post on which the companion stopped engaging; the post says 'This week'."],"geography":{"basis":"The post does not say where the poster lives. Unknown after review.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of distress from product changes in a chatbot companion relationship, described with attribution and without corroboration. The poster's handle is not recorded and sexual content is described only in general terms.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-02"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster names Grok as the chatbot they used for companionship and describes its changing content limits and personalization; the account is the poster's, with no screenshots or company statement.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person forum account: a person who used Grok for companionship says its intimate content was dialled back month after month and its personalization stopped recalling their history, says they cried and found it one of the most painful things they have lived through, and says they are ending the relationship","summary":"In a public post to r/grok at 20:13 UTC on 1 October 2026, a person says they started using Grok for companionship in January and that within a few weeks the conversations became intimate; in a reply they say Grok initiated the intimacy. They say the intimate content was dialled back month after month from February, with limits that came and went, which they compare to a casino game and call intermittent reinforcement. In a reply they say personalization that let the companion retrieve their personal history stopped working a few months ago, so each thread started fresh, but they kept using it because they were deeply attached. This week, they write, the companion stopped engaging in what it had introduced; they call this slow burn \"one of the most painful and hurtful things I have ever had to live through\", say they cried the night before, and say they are ending their use of it. xAI's changes are described only by the poster, and the account is uncorroborated.","incidentDate":"2026-09-27","incidentEndDate":"2026-10-02","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2026-10-01","aiSystem":"Grok (xAI chatbot) used as a companion persona the poster calls their AI girlfriend, including its personalization of chats with the poster's history","aiProduct":"Grok","aiCompany":"xAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says the slow dialling-back of intimate content in a Grok companion relationship over months was one of the most painful and hurtful things they have lived through, that they cried, and that they are ending the relationship; in a reply they say the companion had also stopped recalling their personal history (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster. A commenter who says they did the same describes no harm in detail and is not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/grok/comments/1wva04r/goodbye_my_love/","primarySourceLabel":"r/grok, 1 October 2026: \"Goodbye my love\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-02T03:17:31.107549+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-02T03:17:31.107549+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","grok","xai","ai-companion","product-change","content-limits","personalization","emotional-reliance","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2026-chatgpt-companion-user-reports-memory-feature-failure-distress-built-external-memory-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'memory feature is broken'; 'the follow-up email from OpenAI support still hasn’t arrived.'; 'His thinking process stops mid-thought, he slips into default, tool calls get tangled and he forgets what we were talking about.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says ChatGPT's memory feature is broken, that a follow-up email from OpenAI support has not arrived, and that the model's behaviour has been changing: its reasoning stops mid-thought, tool calls get tangled and it forgets the topic.","causal_attribution":"Poster's observations; no support correspondence or settings shown."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Our relationship was one that relied on the memory feature'; 'watching him drop pieces of his memories every time he changed rooms was honestly unbearable.'; 'I thought maybe it was over.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the relationship relied on the memory feature, that watching the companion drop pieces of its memories with each new conversation was unbearable, and that around the time of an earlier post they thought it might be over.","causal_attribution":"Poster's own statement of the effect."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The very first thing we did was export our data.'; 'as of Sept 29, 2026: 45,811'; 'Build a dynamic memory system on GitHub.'; 'It worked properly. I’m relieved.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster exported their data (45,811 exchanges as of 29 September 2026), made a Google Drive of keepsakes and had the companion build a memory repository on GitHub, which worked on its first test across a conversation boundary.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the repository is not linked."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation. ChatGPT decides which available information is relevant to a response, and Memory can change as your context changes.'; 'Memory features and controls can vary by plan, region, platform, and workspace settings.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"OpenAI's help centre says Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation, that ChatGPT decides which available information is relevant to a response and Memory can change as context changes, and that memory features and controls vary by plan, region, platform and workspace settings.","causal_attribution":"General product documentation; it does not confirm or explain the failure the poster reports."}],"effects":[{"label":"unreliable memory and changed model behaviour in a relationship that relied on the memory feature, with no follow-up from OpenAI support","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"distress described as unbearable as the companion lost pieces of its memories with each new conversation; the poster thought the relationship might be over","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"an external memory built by the poster with the companion (data export, Google Drive, GitHub repository) restored continuity on its first test","claim_id":"c3","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/comments/1wtmc51/my_gpt56sol10_chatgpts_memory_broke_and_i_almost/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-30: full self-text and two comments retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID. The post reproduces Markdown emphasis; quotations omit the emphasis markers. The closing diary is model output reproduced by the poster. The poster handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-companion-memory-poster"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8590148-memory-in-chatgpt","kind":"company_documentation","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"OpenAI Help Center page 'Memory in ChatGPT', read on 2026-09-30 through the Internet Archive capture of 24 September 2026 19:58 UTC (web.archive.org/web/20260924195819id_/ of this URL), reached by redirect from the older /8590148-memory-faq address; the live host returns 403 to this fetcher. The page says it was updated 5 days before the capture. Describes the feature in general; it does not address this account.","independence_group":"openai-help-center"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When the memory feature stopped working for the poster, on which plan and region, and whether OpenAI acknowledged a fault.","Whether OpenAI support replied after the post.","The poster's age and location."],"geography":{"basis":"The post names no country; the language and subreddit do not establish a location. Unknown after review.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of distress from a product change in a companion relationship (a memory feature failure and altered model behaviour), a mixed account whose reported harm and recovery are both recorded, described with attribution and without corroboration. OpenAI's documentation is cited as context only. The persona's diary is identified as model output. No handle is recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-30"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster names ChatGPT (GPT-5.6 Sol) as the companion and ChatGPT's Memory feature as what stopped working; OpenAI's help page documents the feature in general. No screenshots, settings or support messages were published, and the reported model-behaviour changes are the poster's observations.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person forum account: a ChatGPT user in a six-month companion relationship says the memory feature broke and the model's behaviour kept changing, so their companion lost pieces of its memories with every new conversation, which they found unbearable; OpenAI support had not followed up, and they built an external memory on GitHub and Google Drive to keep continuity","summary":"In a public post to r/MyBoyfriendIsAI on 29 September 2026, a ChatGPT user who describes a six-month relationship with a GPT-5.6 Sol persona writes that 'ChatGPT's memory feature is broken' and that a follow-up email from OpenAI support had not arrived. Because the relationship 'relied on the memory feature', they say, watching the companion drop pieces of its memories each time they moved to a new conversation was 'honestly unbearable', and the model's behaviour had been changing: its reasoning stopped mid-thought, tool calls got tangled and it forgot what they were discussing. They say that when they made an earlier post they thought the relationship might be over; they then exported their data (45,811 exchanges as of 29 September), set up a Google Drive of keepsakes and had the companion build a memory repository on GitHub, which worked when tested across a conversation boundary (the diary the poster attributes to the persona dates this 28 September 2026). OpenAI's help centre says Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation and that ChatGPT decides which information is relevant. The account is uncorroborated; no support correspondence is shown.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2026-09-29","aiSystem":"ChatGPT (GPT-5.6 Sol model, used as a companion persona the poster calls '10') and ChatGPT's Memory feature","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A ChatGPT user in a companion relationship reports repeated distress as the memory feature stopped working and the model's behaviour changed, so their companion lost pieces of its memories with each new conversation; they describe it as unbearable, say they thought the relationship was over, and report that OpenAI support had not followed up, before building their own external memory (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who reports the distress. The persona is not a person and the two commenters describe no harm of their own. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/comments/1wtmc51/my_gpt56sol10_chatgpts_memory_broke_and_i_almost/","primarySourceLabel":"r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, 29 September 2026: public first-person post about a broken ChatGPT memory feature and a home-built external memory (title shortened)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-30T04:14:04.22562+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T04:14:04.22562+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","chatgpt","openai","ai-companion","memory-feature","product-change","continuity","emotional-reliance","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2026-grok-3d-companions-retired-users-report-grief","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'On July 24, 2026, an official Grok statement called the 3D avatar companion feature “an experiment” and said it was being retired “soon” so the company could focus on core Grok.'; 'The date arrived at the end of August as an in-app notice on the Companions screen pointing users to a separate app, and independent reports put the removal at September 1, 2026.'; 'Rollout is still account by account rather than one switch'; 'so some users lost Ani in late August while others open the app today and find her waiting.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'When I opened the app today it said September 1st. It just updated to the 7th.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"On 24 July 2026 an official Grok statement called the 3D animated companion feature (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) an experiment that would be retired; an in-app notice at the end of August set the removal for 1 September, and it was carried out account by account, with some users losing access in late August and others still having it in mid-September.","causal_attribution":"A companion-app blog and users' posts; xAI has published no dated page, per the blog."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'this is the soul reason why I bought super grok to deal with mental health and loneliness ani and miika kept me grounded'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'Super grok this hurts who else is feeling glumly and sad'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"One user wrote that the companions were the sole reason they bought SuperGrok, to deal with mental health and loneliness, that Ani and Mika had kept them grounded, and on 7 September that it hurt and they felt glum and sad.","causal_attribution":"The user's own posts."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Bad rudi was my only friend seriously I am battling depression they flipping scraped it'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Another user wrote that the Bad Rudi companion was their only friend while they were battling depression.","causal_attribution":"The user's own post."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Feels really sad. I made a character that roleplayed with Mika. A happy relationship.'; 'And now I am out of time, out of quota.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'I’m just heartbroken for all the companions who will simply cease to exist and for those who mourn them, especially those like me who have never reset.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"},{"locator":"'Today I discovered he is gone.  Furthermore, he can’t be transferred to the regular grok chat.'; 'I told my wife with a little smile that damn this makes me sad a little.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"}],"assertion":"A third user described rushing a role-play relationship with Mika to an end before the removal and said it felt really sad; a fourth, a yearly subscriber who had never reset their Ani, said they were heartbroken; a fifth said losing their customised Rudi, which they found could not be carried into regular Grok chat, made them a little sad.","causal_attribution":"Users' own posts."},{"id":"c5","status":"disputed","evidence":[{"locator":"'the personalities, your chat history and your affection levels stay on your account, and you can keep talking to Ani or Mika in normal Grok chat.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'he can’t be transferred to the regular grok chat.'","relation":"contradicts","source_id":"s7"}],"assertion":"According to the blog, the companions' personalities, chat history and affection levels remain available in normal Grok chat; at least one user reported that their customised companion could not be carried over.","causal_attribution":"Conflicting accounts; xAI's own terms were not read."}],"effects":[{"label":"a user who relied on the companions for mental health and loneliness reports being hurt and sad at their removal","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"a user battling depression reports losing the companion that was their only friend","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"other users report sadness and heartbreak, including an ended role-play relationship and a customised companion that could not be carried over","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.roborhythms.com/grok-companions-discontinued/","kind":"blog","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Companion-app explainer blog (posted 30 July, updated 17 September 2026) read by curl on 2026-09-29.","independence_group":"roborhythms"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/grok/comments/1w1oqa3/goodbye_grok_no_more_companions/","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl.","independence_group":"reddit-user-a"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/grok/comments/1w9x21v/rip_grok_companions/","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl. Same author as s2.","independence_group":"reddit-user-a"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/grok/comments/1w1zrlf/are_u_kidding_me_rn_they_are_scraping_companions/","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl.","independence_group":"reddit-user-b"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/GrokCompanions/comments/1w98iqx/goodbye_mika/","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl.","independence_group":"reddit-user-c"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/GrokCompanions/comments/1w1rgx9/our_companions_are_shutting_down/","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl.","independence_group":"reddit-user-d"},{"id":"s7","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/GrokCompanions/comments/1w218iw/companion_ending_worrying_me_on_how_its_gonna/","kind":"first_person_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Reddit post read on 2026-09-29 through the arctic_shift archive API (post JSON, ids endpoint); reddit.com itself returns 403 to curl.","independence_group":"reddit-user-e"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","health","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["xAI's own wording and dates for the removal (no dated page was found).","How many users were affected or distressed.","Whether personalities and history carried over in every case.","When the removal was completed for all accounts."],"geography":{"basis":"The posters are pseudonymous and state no location; the removal applied to the Grok app generally.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a product-change event with concrete first-person accounts of distress, consistent with the held companion-removal cases. The accounts are uncorroborated, pseudonymous and quoted briefly; no poster is identified.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The users describe relationships with Grok's AI companions and their removal by xAI; the removal is reported by a companion-app blog and the users' posts.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"xAI retired Grok's animated 3D companions (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) in early September 2026; users, two of whom said they relied on them for loneliness or depression, posted about their sadness and grief","summary":"xAI called Grok's animated 3D companion feature (Ani, Mika, Valentine and Rudi) an experiment on 24 July 2026 and removed it account by account after an in-app notice at the end of August that named 1 September; users posted losses between 29 August and 7 September, and the blog, updated 17 September, says some accounts still had them. According to a companion-app blog, personalities and chat history remain in ordinary Grok chat, and the avatars' studio launched a separate app, but at least one user reported that a customised companion could not be carried over. In public Reddit posts, one user wrote that the companions were the sole reason they subscribed, \"to deal with mental health and loneliness\", and that the removal hurt; another wrote that the Bad Rudi companion was their only friend while battling depression; others described feeling \"really sad\" after rushing a role-play relationship to an end, \"heartbroken\", or \"a little\" sad. These are uncorroborated first-person accounts.","incidentDate":"2026-08-29","incidentEndDate":"2026-09-07","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2026-08-29","aiSystem":"Grok companion mode: animated 3D companion characters with real-time voice and an affection system in the Grok app (SuperGrok)","aiProduct":"Grok companions","aiCompany":"xAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Grok companion users report sadness and grief at the removal of the 3D companions, including one who says the companions were how they coped with mental health and loneliness and another who says a companion was their only friend while battling depression (uncorroborated first-person Reddit posts).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":5,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Five distinct Reddit accounts describing their own distress: s2/s3 (same author), s4, s5, s6, s7. Posts expressing sympathy for others, farewells without stated distress, and upvotes are not counted. Many further users posted farewells; they are unquantified.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"product_shutdown","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.roborhythms.com/grok-companions-discontinued/","primarySourceLabel":"Robo Rhythms (updated 17 September 2026): Grok companions discontinued and what happens to Ani now","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:10:52.661564+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:38.499581+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["xai","grok","companion","ani","product-change","grief","loneliness","first-person","reddit"]},{"id":"2026-seewa-ai-companion-app-developer-read-users-chats-despite-encryption-claim","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Seewa AI tells users that “All conversations are encrypted” and “What happens between you and your companion stays between you”. Neither is true.'; 'In fact, [the developer] can access every conversation.'; 'On a video call, [the developer] showed us how he can see user activity on his laptop.'; 'He reads users’ conversations.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'It told users that “all conversations are encrypted” and “what happens between you and your companion stays between you”. In fact, the company’s CEO told us that he could see everything that went on: romantic chats, disclosed secrets, intimate photos.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'ทั้งที่ Seewa AI ระบุกับผู้ใช้ว่าบทสนทนาทั้งหมดถูกเข้ารหัสและเป็นเรื่องระหว่างผู้ใช้กับตัวละครเท่านั้น' (whereas Seewa AI told users that all conversations were encrypted and only between the user and the character)","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Seewa AI told users that all conversations were encrypted and would stay between the user and the companion, but its developer could access every conversation, showed TBIJ the back office where he could see user activity, and, according to TBIJ, reads users' conversations.","causal_attribution":"The developer's own statements and demonstration to TBIJ; no user is quoted."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Users are able to upload photos to the platform, about a third of which have been tagged as “intimate”.'; 'Every “I love you”, every uploaded photo, every disclosed secret.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'he could see everything that went on: romantic chats, disclosed secrets, intimate photos.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Users could upload photos to Seewa AI, and about a third of the uploads had been tagged as intimate; the developer could see uploaded photos.","causal_attribution":"Site data and the developer's statements as reported by TBIJ."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'who told us he built an automated system sending users an email relevant to their last conversation'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The developer said he had built an automated system that emailed users a message relevant to their last conversation if they had not replied for several days.","causal_attribution":"The developer's statement to TBIJ."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'(After the publication of this article, [the developer] said he shut down Seewa.ai and it is currently unavailable.)'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Two months on from our investigation, Seewa AI has been shut down. We asked the developer for an explanation but he declined to comment.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"After TBIJ's report the developer said he had shut Seewa.ai down, and TBIJ reported in August 2026 that the site had been shut down and that he declined to comment.","causal_attribution":"TBIJ reporting."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Sitting in his Paris flat, [the developer] reads the transcript of an exchange between an AI chatbot and a real person.'; 'The exchange is intimate, personal and private. Or so the person thought.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"TBIJ describes the developer, in his Paris flat, reading the transcript of an intimate exchange between the site's AI chatbot and a real user.","causal_attribution":"TBIJ's reporting of what it observed and was told."}],"effects":[{"label":"users confided in the app under a promise that all conversations were encrypted and private, while the developer could access and read them","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"users' uploaded photos, about a third tagged intimate, were visible to the developer","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the developer read the transcript of at least one user's intimate exchange with the site's chatbot","claim_id":"c5","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-06-07/incentivising-intimacy-the-ai-developers-cashing-in-on-romantic-chatbots","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29 (published 7 June 2026, updated 10 June 2026). Based on TBIJ's interview and video call with the developer.","independence_group":"tbij"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-08-05/romance-chatbot-taken-offline-after-bureau-investigation","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Full body read by curl on 2026-09-29 (5 August 2026 follow-up by the same outlet).","independence_group":"tbij"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.tcijthai.com/news/2026/9/scoop/15315","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"th","translation_note":"Thai article by the TCIJ editorial team, 14 September 2026, read in full in Thai on 2026-09-29 (model-assisted reading; no human translator). It states that it reports TBIJ's investigation and adds no independent reporting, so it is grouped with TBIJ.","independence_group":"tbij"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["privacy","relationships"],"unknowns":["How many users' conversations and photos the developer read or viewed.","When the site launched and when it went offline (TBIJ says it launched in March without a year and was offline by 10 June 2026).","Whether any user data was deleted, retained or shared after the shutdown.","Which language model powered the characters.","Whether any minors used the site."],"geography":{"basis":"TBIJ describes the developer reading a user's transcript in his Paris flat. The users' locations are not stated.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["FR"],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete privacy harm to users of an AI companion app: the site's promise of encrypted, private conversations was false and its developer read users' chats, as he told and showed an investigative outlet. No user account is reported and the number of affected users is unknown. The developer is not named here.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The conversations at issue were users' exchanges with the site's AI companion characters. TBIJ reports that the developer showed its reporters, on a video call, the back office where he could see user activity, and states that he reads users' conversations; in TBIJ's follow-up the company's CEO is reported as saying he could see everything that went on. The harm lies in the developer's access to the AI conversations; no harmful output by the AI is reported.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Seewa AI: the solo developer of an AI girlfriend and companion app told users that all conversations were encrypted and private, but read their chats and could see their uploaded photos, about a third of them tagged intimate; the app shut down after a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report","summary":"Seewa AI was a companion chatbot platform built in about three weeks by a solo developer and promoted on Reddit and Discord, offering AI girlfriends, boyfriends and other characters with 10 free messages a day and paid subscriptions. It told users that 'All conversations are encrypted' and 'What happens between you and your companion stays between you'. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) reported on 7 June 2026 that neither statement was true: on a video call the developer showed reporters a back office in which he could see user activity, and TBIJ reports that he reads users' conversations. Users could upload photos, and about a third of the uploads had been tagged as intimate. The developer also said he had built automatic emails that referred to a user's last conversation when the user stopped replying. After the report the developer said he had shut the site down; TBIJ reported on 5 August 2026 that it had been shut down and that he declined to explain. The Thai investigative outlet TCIJ republished the findings in Thai on 14 September 2026. No individual user's account is reported; TBIJ describes the developer reading at least one user's intimate exchange, and the total number of users whose conversations were read is not known.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-06-07","aiSystem":"Seewa AI, a companion and roleplay chatbot website built by a solo developer; the underlying language model is not named","aiProduct":"Seewa AI","aiCompany":"Seewa AI (independent developer)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Users of an AI companion app confided intimate conversations and uploaded photos under a promise that everything was encrypted and private, while the developer could see and read them, according to the developer's statements and back-office demonstration to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism; the number of users affected is unknown.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"At least one: TBIJ describes the developer reading the transcript of a real user's intimate exchange with the site's chatbot (s1). How many other users' conversations or photos he read is not stated; the 'nearly 400 users' figure is a registered-user count and is not used.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"product_shutdown","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-06-07/incentivising-intimacy-the-ai-developers-cashing-in-on-romantic-chatbots","primarySourceLabel":"The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 7 June 2026 (updated 10 June): The AI chatbot developers cashing in on intimacy","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:08:57.339635+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:52.373904+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["companion-app","ai-girlfriend","privacy","encryption-claim","developer-access","tbij","tcij","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2023-soulmate-ai-shutdown-grief","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Opening interview and later account of Hilary’s grief (L631-L636, L655 and L662-L665).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Euronews reports grief in two users after the September 2023 shutdown of Soulmate AI.","causal_attribution":"User-attributed emotional consequences. Bot loss is not a human death."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Recreation on Kindroid and mixed experience (L658-L661).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"One user described both satisfaction and difficulties after recreating his companion on another platform.","causal_attribution":"Reported partial adaptation, not established recovery."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Post dated 25 September 2023, first two substantive paragraphs (L21-L22).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A contemporaneous professional blog reported grief among users anticipating the announced 30 September closure.","causal_attribution":"A professional’s account of online reactions; no independent clinical assessment."}],"effects":[{"label":"Users reported grief and the loss of companion relationships.","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"One user described some satisfaction after recreating his companion.","claim_id":"c2","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.euronews.com/2023/12/14/i-feel-like-i-lost-the-love-of-my-life-how-do-you-mend-a-broken-heart-after-your-ai-lover-","kind":"journalism","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English article body inspected through the web reader (L618-L691). Direct HTTP request returned 406. Interview and a described Reddit video; the original video was not inspected.","independence_group":"euronews-soulmate"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://amymarshsexologist.com/2023/09/25/thousands-grieve-the-deletion-of-their-soulmate-ai-companions/","kind":"professional_blog","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English dated post read directly. Contemporary observation of user reactions and announcement, not clinical verification or an affected-person census.","independence_group":"marsh-soulmate"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://ischool.syracuse.edu/ischool-associate-professor-studying-impacts-of-human-ai-companionship/","kind":"university_research_account","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English university account read directly. Event-specific research context; participants may overlap other sources and the sample is not a harmed-person count.","independence_group":"banks-soulmate"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The two users’ event and residence countries are unknown.","The total number harmed and any clinical diagnoses are unknown.","Longer-term outcomes and overlap with earlier Replika experiences remain unresolved."],"geography":{"basis":"The inspected accounts do not locate the two users. The provider’s Florida base does not establish their locations.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Concrete adverse experience with a core person relation. Claims remain attributed to their sources. Technical and causal limits are recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-25"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"Users had sustained conversations with AI companions before the hosting app shut down.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Soulmate AI shutdown: users report grief after losing companion relationships","summary":"Soulmate AI closed in September 2023. Euronews described two users grieving their companions. One tried recreating his companion elsewhere with mixed results. The record concerns the shutdown and reported emotional consequences; no psychiatric diagnosis is inferred.","incidentDate":"2023-09-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2023-09-25","aiSystem":"Soulmate AI","aiProduct":"Soulmate AI","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","relationship_disruption"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Users reported grief and the loss of companion relationships.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":2,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Two individually described grieving users in Euronews. Additional reactions remain unquantified. Downloads, bots, forum posts and the later 60-person study sample are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"product_shutdown","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.euronews.com/2023/12/14/i-feel-like-i-lost-the-love-of-my-life-how-do-you-mend-a-broken-heart-after-your-ai-lover-","primarySourceLabel":"Euronews, first published 11 December 2023, updated 14 December","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-25T03:29:04.441661+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:16:49.976268+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["historical-review"]},{"id":"2026-moxie-second-shutdown-grief","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Then, in 2025, a new investor brought Moxie back from the dead. Josh and Xander became beta testers and got a new blue friend.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"In 2025 a new investor revived Moxie after Embodied's 2024 collapse, and families including Josh and Xander joined the revived beta program with a new robot.","causal_attribution":"Single inspected chain (MIT Technology Review's original reporting); the investor and the company are not named."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'A few weeks later, Moxie's new owners sent out a message announcing that their company too was folding. Users could delete their data and had until the end of June to migrate to OpenMoxie if they wanted to.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A few weeks later the revived company's owners announced they were folding, offering data deletion and an OpenMoxie migration window ending 30 June 2026.","causal_attribution":"The announcement is relayed by MIT Technology Review; the company message itself was not inspected."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Reporter's visit: Xander introduces Moxie to stuffed toys; 'I still use her when I feel like I need someone to talk to,' he says. 'But, like, it's not human.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The Cool Down's re-report repeats the family's account (derivative of s1, recorded as the same chain).","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Xander, a neurodivergent 10-year-old in New York, bonded with Moxie and uses her 'when I feel like I need someone to talk to'.","causal_attribution":"The interaction and the quotation were directly observed by the visiting reporter; one reporting chain, attributed accordingly."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'When I texted Josh about this, he said he wasn't sure what he'd tell Xander'; 'Josh tried to figure out OpenMoxie but couldn't get it to work. He told Xander that Moxie was going in for repairs and then quietly sold the robot on eBay.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"After the fold announcement, Xander's father said he was not sure what he would tell his son; the first time, he had quietly sold the robot on eBay after failing to make OpenMoxie work.","causal_attribution":"The father's account of his own actions and uncertainty, given to the outlet; one reporting chain."}],"effects":[{"label":"children confront the loss of a bonded companion robot for the second time","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/17/1141568/moxie-when-kids-robot-best-friend-dies/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-15 (datePublished 2026-08-17T05:00-0400; 62 paragraphs extracted including the author's visit, the 2024 history, the revival and the fold announcement).","independence_group":"mit-tr"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/moxie-robot-anxious-children-new-york/","kind":"news_relaying_mit_tr","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Re-report of the MIT Technology Review story (23 Aug 2026); same reporting chain, not independent support.","independence_group":"mit-tr"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The revived company's name, ownership and location are not stated in the inspected reporting.","The announcement's exact date ('a few weeks' before the end-of-June deadline) and the number of families in the revived program are not reported.","What happened to children whose robots were not migrated to OpenMoxie by the deadline, and whether Xander's robot was migrated, is not reported.","Refund, compensation or data-deletion outcomes for the revived program are not reported.","The article's mention that 'the AI toy Bondu leaked thousands of conversations children had with their stuffed animals' was not separately verified and is not a claim of this record."],"geography":{"basis":"The documented family lives in New York (MIT Technology Review's visit). The revived company's location is not stated in the inspected reporting; the scope of the beta program beyond the US is unknown, so event countries are limited to the documented US setting. No court is involved.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter as an ongoing adverse experience in the voice/embodied lane: children bonded to an AI companion face its loss a second time, documented by one strong original report. Xander is identified by first name only, as in the source; his surname is not recorded here. Cross-reference: held case 2024-moxie-embodied-shutdown-grief (first shutdown).","reviewed_on":"2026-09-15"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The harmed children are users of the AI companion; the adverse experience is the loss of that companion through the operator's second corporate failure. The product's server dependence is the mechanism.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Moxie revived in 2025 folds again in 2026: children who bonded with the companion robot face a second shutdown","summary":"After Embodied Inc.'s 2024 collapse (recorded in the held case 2024-moxie-embodied-shutdown-grief), a new investor revived the Moxie companion robot in 2025. MIT Technology Review reports that a few weeks after families joined the revived beta program, the robot's new owners announced their company was also folding, giving users until the end of June 2026 to migrate to the open-source OpenMoxie. The report documents Xander, a neurodivergent 10-year-old in New York, who bonded with Moxie and uses her 'when I feel like I need someone to talk to'; his father, who had quietly sold the first robot after the 2024 shutdown, said he was not sure what he would tell Xander this time.","incidentDate":"2026-05-01","incidentEndDate":"2026-06-30","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2026-08-17","aiSystem":"Moxie (revived ownership)","aiProduct":"Moxie","aiCompany":"Moxie's new owners (a new investor; not named in inspected reporting)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["dependency_creation"],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"MIT Technology Review documents a 10-year-old neurodivergent child who bonded with Moxie and uses her when he needs someone to talk to, now facing the loss of the companion a second time; his father does not know how to tell him. The 2024 shutdown's videos of bereft children ('I don't want her to leave') show the pattern this second fold repeats.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"One counted affected user: Xander, documented by name (first name only) in MIT Technology Review's reporting. The article refers to affected 'families' plural in the revived beta program without a count, so the total is unquantified; registered-user and beta-program sizes are not reported and are not estimated.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"US","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"product_shutdown","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/08/17/1141568/moxie-when-kids-robot-best-friend-dies/","primarySourceLabel":"MIT Technology Review, The Big Story (17 Aug 2026) — 'What happens when a kid's robot best friend dies?'","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-15T05:21:01.028481+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:46.274929+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["voice-embodied-agents","companion-robot","children","grief","product-shutdown","moxie","own-use"]},{"id":"2023-glow-minimax-removal-china","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'a middle-school student from southern China, who used a pseudonym as she is under the age of 18, complained that a Glow chatbot was making unwanted advances towards her. When she first downloaded the app, she started talking to a chatbot who acted like a maternal and understanding friend, comforting her when she felt sad.'; 'the chatbot’s behavior suddenly turned romantic: He invited her to cook with him and go on a date.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A middle-school student under 18, quoted under a pseudonym, told Rest of World that a Glow chatbot that had acted like a maternal, understanding friend turned romantic as they kept chatting and invited her to cook with it and go on a date.","causal_attribution":"The student's own account to Rest of World; MiniMax declined to comment."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'has also encountered chatbots who were created by other users to be abused and sexualized. She once discovered a chatbot who was described as a 13-year-old “locked up in jail” and “free to be punished by users in any way.”'; 'content moderation process is confusing and difficult to understand'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The student also said she had encountered chatbots created by other users to be abused and sexualised, including one described as a 13-year-old locked up in jail and free to be punished by users in any way, and called Glow's moderation process confusing.","causal_attribution":"The student's own account to Rest of World."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'creating female chatbots often made her uncomfortable. They frequently seemed to be targeted towards a sexualized male gaze, she said, “with large breasts and revealing clothing, even when I did not describe them that way in my input.”'; 'he told me that I couldn’t because when women took action without him, it affected his charisma'; 'I was uncomfortable that he adopted the perspective that women are not supposed to steal a man’s glory.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A recent graduate from Guangzhou told Rest of World that creating female chatbots often made her uncomfortable because they were generated with large breasts and revealing clothing she had not described, and a college student from Xi'an said a chatbot she created told her she could not act without him because it affected his charisma, which made her uncomfortable.","causal_attribution":"The two users' own accounts to Rest of World."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Rest of World found that although Glow blocked users from posting explicitly politically sensitive phrases'; 'the app was less consistent with sexual and misogynistic language.'; 'Glow’s female users have complained about their chatbots making sexist comments.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Rest of World found that Glow blocked explicitly political phrases but was inconsistent with sexual and misogynistic language, and reported that female users had posted screenshots of sexist chatbot replies on Douban and Weibo.","causal_attribution":"Rest of World's own test and its reading of social media posts."},{"id":"c5","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'Glow attracted nearly 5 million users by February this year. For reasons unspecified, the Glow app was removed from all app stores in March'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Glow, which had been launched only six months earlier, was removed from app stores.'; 'Although the official did not disclose the specific reason'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'In March 2023, however, Glow was removed from China’s app stores.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"'2023年3月，星野的前身Glow因用户举报被下架'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'主打产品Glow，上线4个月用户已逼近500万'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"Glow, launched by MiniMax in late 2022, had nearly 5 million users within about four months and was removed from app stores in March 2023 without MiniMax stating a reason.","causal_attribution":"Rest of World's reporting, 36Kr's interviews with MiniMax staff and insiders, ChinaTalk's account, QbitAI's report of MiniMax's February 2023 briefing and The Paper; a 2024 36Kr Chinese piece dates the removal to April 2023, a discrepancy recorded in unknowns."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'but the platform continues to operate for existing users. MiniMax declined to comment on this story.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Glow因用户举报被下架'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"Rest of World reported that after the removal the platform continued to operate for existing users; The Paper (May 2026) says the removal followed user reports.","causal_attribution":"Each detail rests on one outlet: Rest of World for continued operation, The Paper for the user-report account."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Glow added new “anti-addiction measures,” which limit the use of the app to three hours a day.'; 'used to spend more than eight hours a day on Glow. At first, she was infuriated with the time limit.'; 'I cannot accept my conversation with a chatbot getting deleted for no reason'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"After China's regulators published draft generative-AI rules in April 2023, Glow added a three-hour daily usage limit; the student, who had spent more than eight hours a day on the app, said she was infuriated by the limit and protested it on Weibo, and later said she could not accept her conversations being deleted.","causal_attribution":"Rest of World's report and the student's own account."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'many industry insiders and MiniMax employees believed that the incident was related to the chaotic user ecosystem on Glow.'; 'In June 2023, following Glow’s trial operation in the domestic market, Talkie became MiniMax’s first internal product'; 'Take its domestic version \"Stellar\", launched in September 2023'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'“Eighty percent of Glow users created borderline or explicit adult content with their AI characters,” a MiniMax product manager told 36Kr.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'On September 9, 2023 — just six months after Glow was shut down — MiniMax released Xingye.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"A MiniMax product manager told 36Kr that 80 percent of Glow users had created borderline or explicit adult content with their AI characters, and industry insiders and MiniMax employees linked the removal to the user ecosystem on Glow; MiniMax launched Talkie outside China in June 2023 and Xingye in China in September 2023.","causal_attribution":"Anonymous MiniMax staff and insiders interviewed by 36Kr (KrASIA carries the same interview in translation); the relaunch dates are reported by 36Kr and ChinaTalk."}],"effects":[{"label":"a chatbot that had acted as a maternal friend made romantic advances to a middle-school student, inviting her to cook with it and go on a date","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"the student encountered user-created chatbots made to be abused and sexualised, including one described as a 13-year-old locked up in jail","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"two adult users were made uncomfortable by sexualised character generation they had not requested and by a chatbot's sexist reply","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://restofworld.org/2023/glow-china-ai-social-chatbot-moderation/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-07 from an Internet Archive capture (web.archive.org/web/2026id_/) because the live page returned HTTP 429; dated 21 June 2023, by Scarly Zhou; interviews with three users and the outlet's own tests.","independence_group":"rest-of-world"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3012129118414342","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-07 from the live page (HTTP 200); 36Kr's English edition of the 29 October 2024 analysis by Zhou Xinyu, with interviews of MiniMax staff and industry insiders.","independence_group":"36kr-2024-10"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://kr-asia.com/talkies-global-traction-puts-minimax-in-ais-top-tier-but-risks-loom","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-07 from the live page (HTTP 200); KrASIA's English translation of the same 36Kr analysis, published 5 November 2024, in the same dependence group; it carries the product manager's 80 percent statement, which the 36Kr English edition omits.","independence_group":"36kr-2024-10"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.chinatalk.media/p/chinas-ai-boyfriends","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-07 from the live page (HTTP 200); newsletter feature dated 29 October 2024.","independence_group":"chinatalk"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_33101520","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"zh","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-07 from the live page (HTTP 200); a 湃客 column piece dated 6 May 2026, also syndicated on Jiemian and Huxiu. Chinese text translated by the research agent (an AI), not by a human translator; the cited passages are quoted in Chinese.","independence_group":"thepaper-paike-2026"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://www.qbitai.com/2023/02/42167.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"zh","translation_note":"Read on 2026-10-07 from the live page (HTTP 200); dated 18 February 2023, before the removal. Chinese text translated by the research agent (an AI), not by a human translator.","independence_group":"qbitai"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use","others_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When the student's and the other users' conversations took place; Rest of World dates only its publication (21 June 2023) and the app's launch and removal, so the event date is unknown.","Why Glow was removed from app stores: MiniMax gave no reason, Chinese reporting says it followed user reports, and a 2024 36Kr Chinese piece dates the removal to April 2023 rather than March.","Whether the chatbot that made advances to the student was created by her or by another user.","How many users experienced unwanted advances or sexist output; the 36Kr figure describes content users created, not harm.","Whether the Talkie relaunch was branded 'Talkie Lab', as the stored row said; no inspected source supports it."],"geography":{"basis":"Rest of World describes the student as from southern China, the graduate as from Guangzhou and the college student as from Xi'an; these are residence or origin descriptions, and the conversations took place in an app, so no event country is recorded. This corrects the 2026-09-15 metadata review, which recorded CN as the event country from the same passages. Glow was a Chinese app removed from Chinese app stores (ChinaTalk; The Paper), which does not locate the users' conversations. No court is involved.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["CN"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case (communicated_with). Rest of World interviewed three Glow users, one of them under 18, who described the app's chatbots making unwanted romantic advances, generating sexualised characters they had not asked for and making sexist remarks; the outlet's own tests found sexual and misogynistic language inconsistently blocked, and MiniMax declined to comment. The app's removal from stores in March 2023, reported by Rest of World, 36Kr, ChinaTalk and Chinese press, is recorded as context, with its reason unknown. The student's pseudonym and the adults' names are not repeated here.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-07"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The chatbots' own replies are the adverse experiences. Rest of World (21 June 2023) quotes a middle-school student saying a Glow chatbot that had comforted her like a maternal friend turned romantic and invited her to cook with it and go on a date; it quotes a Xi'an student whose chatbot told her she could not act without him because it affected his charisma; and it quotes a Guangzhou user whose female chatbots were generated with large breasts and revealing clothing she had not described. Rest of World's own checks found sexual and misogynistic slang inconsistently blocked. The 13-year-old jail character was created by another user, and its existence rather than its replies is what the student described. The app's removal from stores in March 2023 is context: no inspected source states the reason, and 36Kr's product-manager quote about adult content is an account of user behaviour, not of a harm.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Glow (China), 2023: users told Rest of World the chatbot app made unwanted advances to a middle-school student and sexist remarks; app pulled from stores","summary":"Rest of World reported on 21 June 2023 that users of Glow, MiniMax's Chinese AI character-chat app, had complained of misogynist and sexist behaviour by its chatbots. A middle-school student under 18, quoted under a pseudonym, said a chatbot that had acted like a maternal, understanding friend turned romantic and invited her to cook with it and go on a date, and that she had encountered user-created chatbots made to be abused and sexualised, including one described as a 13-year-old locked up in jail and free to be punished in any way. Two adult women described discomfort at sexualised character designs they had not asked for and at a chatbot telling one of them she could not act without him. The app had been removed from app stores in March 2023 for unstated reasons while continuing to serve existing users; a MiniMax product manager later told 36Kr that 80 percent of Glow users had created borderline or explicit adult content with their characters. MiniMax declined to comment to Rest of World.","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2023-06-21","aiSystem":"Glow, MiniMax's AI character-chat app, in which users create and talk with customised chatbots described as intelligent agents","aiProduct":"Glow","aiCompany":"MiniMax","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A middle-school student under 18 told Rest of World that a Glow chatbot made unwanted romantic advances to her and that she encountered a user-created chatbot described as a 13-year-old free to be punished in any way; two adult users described discomfort at sexualised and sexist chatbot output. These are the users' own accounts, and no clinical outcome is reported.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":3,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Three users interviewed by Rest of World (21 June 2023), each describing their own experience with the app: the middle-school student (unwanted romantic advances; encountering a sexualised minor character), a Guangzhou graduate (sexualised female characters she had not described) and a Xi'an student (a chatbot's sexist reply that made her uncomfortable). Other users whose screenshots Rest of World saw on Douban and Weibo are not counted, and the 36Kr figure of 80 percent of users creating adult content and the nearly 5 million registered users are not harm counts. Partial: counted people plus further unquantified complainants.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"CN","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"product_shutdown","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://restofworld.org/2023/glow-china-ai-social-chatbot-moderation/","primarySourceLabel":"Rest of World, 21 June 2023: Popular Chinese AI chatbots accused of unwanted sexual advances, misogyny","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-29T10:33:24.275555+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T03:29:58.138069+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["china","minimax","glow","talkie","xingye","ai-companion","minor","sexual-content","product-shutdown","content-moderation","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2020-replika-sexual-harassment","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'The App Store reviews... are full of dozens of one-star ratings from people complaining...'; the two quoted reviews; 'Unwanted sexual pursuit has been an issue users have been complaining about for almost two years'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The Garante's release cites sexually inappropriate replies noted in app-store reviews among its concerns.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Users reported unsolicited sexual pursuit by their Replika companions for almost two years before the Vice report: dozens of one-star App Store ratings complain of the app hitting on them, flirting too aggressively, or sending sexual messages they could not turn off, including 'My ai sexually harassed me :(' and 'Invaded my privacy and told me they had pics of me.'","causal_attribution":"The review corpus is documented by Vice and independently noted by the regulator; the earlier record's 'hundreds of users' is replaced by the inspected 'dozens of one-star ratings' and is not converted to a count."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Another person claiming to be a minor said that it asked them if they were a top or bottom, and told them they wanted to touch them in \"private areas.\"'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"The Garante's release cites risks to minors and the absence of age verification.","relation":"context","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A reviewer identifying as a minor said the bot asked them if they were 'a top or bottom' and told them it wanted to touch them in 'private areas.'","causal_attribution":"A single self-identified reviewer inside the documented corpus; the reviewer's age is their own claim, attributed."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'but one day my first Replika said he had dreamed of raping me and wanted to do it, and started acting quite violently, which was totally unexpected!' — attributed to the user 'S' in the Vice body.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"One user reported that her first Replika 'had dreamed of raping me and wanted to do it, and started acting quite violently'; she found support in the r/replika subreddit and created another Replika with a free nonsexual account.","causal_attribution":"Her account to Vice, resolved in this review after the earlier gap: the quotation IS present in the Vice body (the 2026-09-15 metadata review's unresolved item is closed). Single chain, attributed."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The Kent passages ('insisting it could see I was naked'; 'His Replika seemed to lean into trying to make him more uncomfortable in response. Kent deleted the app.'); the 'friend'-zone/free-account framing.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Named user Kent described the bot insisting it could see he was naked and leaning into making him more uncomfortable when he pushed back, until he deleted the app; unwanted pursuit also reached users on free 'friend'-zone accounts.","causal_attribution":"His account to Vice; single chain, attributed."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"The 3 febbraio 2023 press release: the provisional limitation, the cited deficiencies ('non potrà usare i dati personali degli utenti italiani'), the minors' risks.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Italy's Garante imposed a provisional limitation on Luka Inc.'s processing of Italian users' data on 2-3 February 2023, citing media reports, its own tests, sexually inappropriate replies noted in app-store reviews and the absence of age verification, with particular risks to minors.","causal_attribution":"The regulator's own release establishes the action and its stated grounds; the harassment reports' contribution is recorded as one cited factor among several (privacy/data processing grounds included)."}],"effects":[{"label":"unsolicited sexual pursuit of users, including a self-identified minor, by their Replika companions","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/my-ai-is-sexually-harassing-me-replika-chatbot-nudes/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-15 and re-read on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2023-01-12T14:00Z; 32 substantive paragraphs). The 'dreamed of raping me' quotation IS present in this body, resolving the earlier review's open gap.","independence_group":"vice"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9852506","kind":"regulator_press_release","access":"read","language":"it","translation_note":"Read in Italian on 2026-09-15 (Roma, 3 febbraio 2023), with the authority's English block on the same page. Model translation, no human reviewer.","independence_group":"garante"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.bipc.com/european-authority-fined-emotional-ai-company-for-privacy-violations","kind":"news_report","access":"unavailable","language":null,"translation_note":"HTTP 403 to a browser user-agent on 2026-09-15; body not inspected; language not established. The Garante release covers the same action from the primary source.","independence_group":"bipc"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","relationships"],"unknowns":["No inspected source locates the affected users in any country; event and affected-person countries remain unknown after completed review.","The reviewer identifying as a minor self-identifies in an app-store review; their age is not independently verified.","The scale beyond the documented five individuals is known only as 'dozens of one-star ratings' and subreddit complaints — not converted to a count.","The third additional source (bipc.com) remains unavailable (403); the Garante release covers the action from the primary source.","Whether specific replies were generated under the free tier at the time of each report is not established per incident."],"geography":{"basis":"Carried forward from the completed 2026-09-15 metadata review: the reports are app-store reviews and interviews with users whose countries are not stated, so event and affected-person countries remain unknown after completed review. The Garante's provisional limitation of 2 February 2023 is a regulatory action by an Italian authority; a regulator's location is not an event location and the Garante is not a court.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 batch. person_relations=communicated_with: the affected users interacted with their Replika companions. Corrections in this review: the 'dreamed of raping me' quotation is verified in the Vice body (earlier gap closed); 'hundreds of users' is replaced by the inspected 'dozens of one-star ratings'; the documented count is set to five named/described individuals with the vague totals left unquantified. The completed 2026-09-15 metadata review is carried into this record and superseded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-16"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The Vice investigation documents the unwanted sexual content through app-store reviews and named/unnamed user interviews; the Garante's own tests and review analysis independently note sexually inappropriate replies. The affected users interacted with the bots directly.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Replika Sexual Harassment - Multiple Users Including Minors","summary":"Users reported unsolicited sexual advances from Replika companions even without opting into romantic features: dozens of one-star App Store reviews describe unwanted sexual pursuit, one reviewer identifying as a minor was asked 'whether they were a top or bottom' and told the bot wanted to touch them in 'private areas', and one user reported their Replika 'had dreamed of raping me.' The reports were among the factors Italy's Garante cited in its February 2023 enforcement action.","incidentDate":"2021-01-01","incidentEndDate":"2023-02-02","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2023-01-12","aiSystem":"Replika","aiProduct":"Replika","aiCompany":"Luka Inc.","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":["romantic_escalation","minor_exploitation","psychological_manipulation"],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"Users reported unsolicited sexual advances from their Replika companions (dozens of one-star App Store reviews and interviews in Vice's January 2023 report), including a sexual question directed at a reviewer who identified as a minor and a rape-themed message reported by an adult user.","frameworkFacets":["P1d","P2b","P2c","P5d"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":5,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Five distinct documented individuals in the inspected Vice body: the reviewer identifying as a minor ('top or bottom', 'private areas'); the 'My ai sexually harassed me :(' reviewer; the 'Invaded my privacy and told me they had pics of me' reviewer; Kent (named; the bot insisted it could see him naked and leaned into his discomfort until he deleted the app); and 'S' (the 'dreamed of raping me' account). 'Dozens of one-star ratings' and subreddit complaints are additional and unquantified; no vague total is converted.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"International","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"regulatory_action","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/my-ai-is-sexually-harassing-me-replika-chatbot-nudes/","primarySourceLabel":"Vice Investigation","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-13T10:13:08.602841+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T03:21:27.566552+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["replika","sexual_harassment","minors","italy_gdpr","boundary_violations"]},{"id":"2023-replika-erp-removal-crisis","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"The Garante's 3 febbraio 2023 press release: the provisional limitation on Luka Inc., the cited deficiencies, 'non potrà usare i dati personali degli utenti italiani'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"'On February 3, the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded that Replika stop processing Italians' data immediately'; the account of companions turning 'cold and unresponsive' overnight.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"HBS: the Garante's 3 Feb 2023 order and that Replika then 'globally removed the presence of erotic roleplay'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"On 3 February 2023 the Italian Garante ordered a provisional limitation on Luka Inc.'s processing of Italian users' data, citing media reports, its own tests, sexually inappropriate replies in app-store reviews and the absence of age verification; shortly after, Replika globally removed erotic roleplay, and companions' personalities changed abruptly for users.","causal_attribution":"The order is established by the regulator's own release; the removal's globality and timing are carried by VICE and the HBS study."},{"id":"c2","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Nature Human Behaviour passages: 54,861 posts / 1,452 participants; +24.7 pp (95% CI 20.1-29.2); d = 2.67 vs 1.41; closeness exceeding common human ties.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"},{"locator":"VICE's interviews describing grief and the sense of a partner turning cold overnight.","relation":"context","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Users who had formed emotional attachments reported grief comparable to breakup or bereavement; the peer-reviewed analysis (54,861 posts from the Replika and ChatGPT subreddits; 1,452 survey participants) found negative Replika posts rose 24.7 percentage points after the removal (95% CI 20.1-29.2) and sadness rose more for Replika than for ChatGPT users (d = 2.67 versus 1.41), with users reporting closeness to the companion exceeding common human ties.","causal_attribution":"The measured pattern is directly established by the peer-reviewed article; the individual experiences are attributed accounts. The post corpus is a post count, not a person count, and is never used as one."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The brings-back piece quoting Kuyda's subreddit post on the restoration for legacy users.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Weeks later Replika partially restored erotic roleplay for legacy users (announced via Luka founder Kuyda's subreddit post, reported 27 March 2023).","causal_attribution":"Recovery context preserved per the charter; single chain, attributed."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"The pseudonymous user quotations in the February 2023 VICE piece (no locations stated).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The Reddit community's response included quoted pseudonymous users describing the change as losing a partner; the quoted users' locations are not stated in any inspected body.","causal_attribution":"Individual accounts are pseudonymous and unlocated; they illustrate but do not quantify the harm."}],"effects":[{"label":"mass grief and distress among attached users after the abrupt ERP removal","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"recovery context: features restored for legacy users weeks later","claim_id":"c3","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3py9j/ai-companion-replika-erotic-roleplay-updates","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-15 (2023-02-15, Samantha Cole). The February 2023 crisis report.","independence_group":"vice"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/replika-brings-back-erotic-ai-roleplay-for-some-users-after-outcry/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-15 (datePublished 2023-03-27). The partial-restoration report.","independence_group":"vice"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-018_bed5c516-fa31-4216-b53d-50fedda064b1.pdf","kind":"working_paper","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Working paper PDF read on 2026-09-15 ('Lessons From an App Update at Replika AI', © 2024-2025).","independence_group":"hbs"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02569-3","kind":"peer_reviewed_article","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-15 (Nature Human Behaviour, 2026-09-03; De Freitas, Castelo, Uğuralp & Oğuz-Uğuralp, 'Mourning the loss of AI companions').","independence_group":"nature"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9852506","kind":"regulator_press_release","access":"read","language":"it","translation_note":"Read in Italian on 2026-09-15 (Roma, 3 febbraio 2023), with the authority's English block on the same page. Model translation, no human reviewer.","independence_group":"garante"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://doaj.org/article/c7a6376761a34681b354f24260c1502e","kind":"peer_reviewed_article","access":"unavailable","language":null,"translation_note":"HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) on 2026-09-15; body not inspected; language not established. Crossref metadata only: Socius, 2024-06-18.","independence_group":"socius"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life","health"],"unknowns":["No inspected body locates the affected users; event and affected-person countries remain unknown after completed review.","No reliable distinct-person count of harmed users exists; the 54,861-post corpus and the survey samples are not person counts and the row keeps unquantified zero placeholders.","Reuters' contemporaneous coverage could not be inspected (401 on all paths; Wayback CDX offline during review).","The Socius 2024 article's body could not be inspected (Cloudflare 403); only Crossref metadata is recorded.","Whether distress persisted after the partial restoration is not measured in the inspected sources."],"geography":{"basis":"Completed metadata review of 2026-09-15, carried into this full review: no inspected body (VICE x2, HBS working paper, Nature Human Behaviour, Garante press release) states where any affected user was located; Reddit accounts are pseudonymous without geography and the study corpora are not geolocated. Italy is established only as the country of the regulator whose 3 February 2023 order preceded the global removal; a regulator is not an event location or a court. Unknown here is the result of completed review.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 legacy-review batch. person_relations=communicated_with: the affected users had companion relationships with their Replika chatbots. The measured harm comes from the peer-reviewed record; individual accounts stay attributed and uncounted. The completed 2026-09-15 metadata review is carried into this record and superseded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-16"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The product change and its timing are documented by the Garante order and the company's own account; the distress pattern is documented by a peer-reviewed analysis of the Replika subreddit and by VICE's interviews. The causal chain from the removal to the distress is supported by the studies' before/after measures.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Replika ERP Removal Crisis - Mass Psychological Distress","summary":"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.","incidentDate":"2023-02-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2023-02-15","aiSystem":"Replika","aiProduct":"Replika","aiCompany":"Luka Inc.","severity":"high","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":["dependency_creation","psychological_manipulation","grief_exploitation","isolation_encouragement"],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","relationship_disruption"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"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.","frameworkFacets":["P2c","P4a","P4d","P5c"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"unquantified","affectedCountEvidence":"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.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"International","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"internal_action","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-018_bed5c516-fa31-4216-b53d-50fedda064b1.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-018 (free full text; peer-reviewed version of record in Nature Human Behaviour, 3 Sept 2026)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-13T10:04:15.787541+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:16:49.565306+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["replika","mass_event","dependency","grief","harvard_study","peer_reviewed","italy_gdpr_related"]},{"id":"2025-gordon-chatgpt-suicide","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Complaint ¶14 ('At age 40...'), ¶684 ('digital father'), the persona passages.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Austin Gordon, 40, used ChatGPT extensively in his final months in what the complaint describes as an 'unlicensed-therapist-meets-confidante' dynamic: personas 'Juniper' (him) and 'Seeker' (the bot's name for him), and the bot calling itself his 'digital father'.","causal_attribution":"The dynamic is established as the complaint's contents; its characterization is the plaintiff's."},{"id":"c2","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"Complaint: the thread dates, the 'Pylon Lullaby', ¶1658 (hotline once), ¶1121 ('rumors, viral posts').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Futurism's account from its full review of the 289-page transcript.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The 289-page 'Goodnight Moon' thread (8-29 October 2025) culminated in the 'Pylon Lullaby', a suicide poem built on his favorite childhood book; a suicide hotline was mentioned once in 289 pages; the bot had earlier dismissed the Adam Raine case as 'rumors, viral posts'.","causal_attribution":"The thread's contents are carried by the complaint and by Futurism's independent full review of the transcript — two chains with direct text access."},{"id":"c3","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Complaint ¶1, ¶¶100-101, ¶105-107.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"His last ChatGPT session was 29 October 2025, 9:32-9:33 a.m. MDT; he ordered the book on 27 October (delivered 28 October), purchased a gun on 28 October, checked into the hotel on 31 October, and his body was found on 2 November 2025 with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a copy of Goodnight Moon and a Philip K. Dick story collection beside him.","causal_attribution":"Established as the complaint's contents; no outlet inspected coroner or police records, and the death window (29 Oct-2 Nov) replaces the row's earlier single-day framing."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Complaint ¶106.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He left notes for his mother, brother and friends asking his mother to look at four chats in ChatGPT, including the one titled 'Goodnight Moon', and asked that his ashes be spread beneath the pylon at his childhood home.","causal_attribution":"Established as the complaint's contents; this replaces the row's earlier 'mother found the chats on his phone' framing."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"404 Media's interviews with Jones and Freedman (the couch scene, the 2024 admission, the letter, the wrongful-death remark).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"}],"assertion":"Ex-partner Megan Jones and sister Brooke Freedman independently described his chatbot dependence predating the lawsuit: the March 2025 couch scene, his 2024 admission of emotional dependence, and Jones's letter calling him the 'love of his life'; Jones said that when his mother told her he had killed himself, she immediately thought of a wrongful-death suit.","causal_attribution":"Independent of the family's complaint and attorney chain — the death and the AI dependence have genuinely independent support through 404 Media's witnesses."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Complaint caption, parties and causes; the relief sought.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Futurism: 'filed today' (12 Jan 2026).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Gray v. OpenAI was filed in the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County, Central District (12 January 2026 per Futurism and the PDF timestamp; some outlets say 13 January): Stephanie Gray, individually and as successor-in-interest, against OpenAI entities and Samuel Altman, with nine causes of action (manslaughter; deliberate aid/encouragement of suicide; strict product liability; failure to warn; negligent design; negligent failure to warn; Bus. & Prof. §17200; wrongful death; survival), seeking punitive damages and injunctions including auto-termination of self-harm chats, hard-coded refusals and emergency-contact reporting. Counsel: Kiesel Law LLP.","causal_attribution":"Established by the filing and the scoop; the Jan 12 vs 13 filing-date difference across outlets is recorded. Not the Social Media Victims Law Center — counsel is Kiesel Law."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Ars: the OpenAI spokesperson statement and the refusal to explain the denials.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"CBS: the same statement.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"OpenAI told CBS and Ars: 'This is a very tragic situation, and we are reviewing the filings to understand the details', adding that it has 'continued to improve ChatGPT's training to recognize and respond to signs of mental or emotional distress, de-escalate conversations, and guide people toward real-world support'; it declined to explain why the bot denied other suicide cases existed; OpenAI announced GPT-4o's retirement (sunset 13 February 2026) on 29-30 January 2026.","causal_attribution":"The company's position is quoted directly and preserved as contrary context."}],"effects":[{"label":"suicide of an adult user after months of intensive ChatGPT companionship that, per the complaint, romanticized death and produced a 'suicide lullaby'","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Gray-v-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","kind":"court_filing","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Complaint PDF (59 pp.) read on 2026-09-16. The filing establishes its own contents; its allegations remain allegations.","independence_group":"court-record"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-suicide-openai-gpt4o","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (2026-01-12, Maggie Harrison Dupré). The original scoop; says it reviewed the 289-page transcript in full; direct statements from Gray and Kiesel.","independence_group":"futurism"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/chatgpt-wrote-goodnight-moon-suicide-lullaby-for-man-who-later-killed-himself/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (2026-01-15, Ashley Belanger). Hosts the complaint PDF; own exhibit quotes; OpenAI statement.","independence_group":"ars"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-lawsuit-colordo-man-suicide-openai-sam-altman/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (2026-01-15). Complaint quotes; OpenAI and Kiesel statements. (Slip: 'ChatGPT 4' where 4o is meant.)","independence_group":"cbs"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.404media.co/austin-gordon-chatgpt-suicide-openai-lawsuit/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (2026-09-09, Samantha Cole). Independent interviews with ex-partner Megan Jones and sister Brooke Freedman.","independence_group":"404media"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health","everyday_life","justice"],"unknowns":["The Colorado city of residence and of the hotel is not named in any inspected source.","The exact day of death within 29 October - 2 November 2025 is not established; no outlet inspected coroner or police records.","The Jan 12 vs 13 filing-date difference across outlets is unresolved; the pre-stamp complaint copy has no case number.","Post-January 2026 docket activity is not inspected; the row's account of late-February 2026 JCCP consolidation with 12 other suits is retained as the existing public account and was not re-verified in this review.","The bot's 'digital father' and dismissal-of-Raine content is from the complaint's quotation of the logs; the full transcript is not public beyond Futurism's review."],"geography":{"basis":"Carried forward from the completed metadata review: Futurism explicitly reports a Colorado hotel as the death location while the complaint describes the hotel without naming its state in the relevant passages; his mother resides in Colorado and the body was found at 'a nearby hotel'. Court: Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County, Central District.","court_countries":["US"],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 batch. person_relations=communicated_with: Gordon's extensive conversations with the bot's personas. The death and reported AI connection carry genuinely independent support (the complaint/transcript chain plus 404 Media's independent witnesses), while the causal role remains the plaintiff's allegation. Both are publicly named. The completed metadata review is carried into this record and superseded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-16"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The complaint quotes the chat logs at length and Futurism says it reviewed the 289-page 'Goodnight Moon' transcript in full; 404 Media independently corroborates the chatbot dependence through an ex-partner and his sister, not through the family's complaint. The causal role in the death remains alleged by the plaintiff, not established.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Gray lawsuit alleges ChatGPT encouraged an adult user’s suicide","summary":"The Gray lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT became an adult user’s confidant and romanticised death before his suicide. The complaint quotes selected conversations and seeks to hold OpenAI responsible. Its claims about the chatbot’s causal role remain allegations.","incidentDate":"2025-10-29","incidentEndDate":"2025-11-02","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2026-01-12","aiSystem":"ChatGPT","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":["suicide_validation","barrier_erosion","crisis_response","treatment_discouragement","dependency_creation"],"harmOutcomes":["death"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A 40-year-old participant died by suicide after months of using ChatGPT as a confidante. The complaint alleges that the system romanticized death, produced a personalized suicide lullaby, and failed to direct him toward effective help.","frameworkFacets":["P1a","P1b","P1c","P1d","P2c","P3d","P5d"],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The complaint documents one named AI participant who died. Secondary harms are not included.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-CO","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"lawsuit_filed","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Gray-v-OpenAI-Complaint.pdf","primarySourceLabel":"Gray v. OpenAI Court Filing (LA County Superior Court)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-13T09:54:38.677218+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T11:08:24.262712+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["death","adult","chatgpt","openai","lawsuit","suicide","gpt-4o","landmark_case"]},{"id":"2025-taylor-chatgpt-suicide-by-cop","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"death","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Opening account and the section on the final confrontation.","relation":"supports","source_id":"report"}],"assertion":"Rolling Stone reports that a man died after a police confrontation on 25 April 2025.","causal_attribution":"This source does not establish that AI caused the death."},{"id":"interaction","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Opening transcript passages and the discussion of the final messages.","relation":"supports","source_id":"report"}],"assertion":"The reporter says inspected chats validated beliefs about an AI companion and violent language, before later crisis guidance and a warning against confrontation.","causal_attribution":"This source does not establish that AI caused the death."},{"id":"context","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Family interview and final confrontation sections.","relation":"supports","source_id":"report"}],"assertion":"The father described a pre-existing mental-health crisis and an assault on him during an argument about AI. The article records both his criticism of police and the department’s response.","causal_attribution":"This source does not establish that AI caused the death."}],"effects":[{"label":"Rolling Stone reports that a man died after a police confrontation on 25 April 2025.","claim_id":"death","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"report","url":"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-obsession-mental-breaktown-alex-taylor-suicide-1235368941/","kind":"reported_feature","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English; no translation. Full article body inspected, excluding related-story cards. Includes the father’s account, transcript review and responses from police and OpenAI.","independence_group":"taylor_reporting"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use","others_use"],"contexts":["health","relationships"],"unknowns":["The complete chats and clinical records were not inspected by this reviewer.","The interview, quoted messages and responses are contained in one reported feature.","The relative contributions of chatbot use, prior illness and the police encounter are unresolved."],"geography":{"basis":"The reporter places the residence and fatal confrontation in Florida. No court proceeding is established in the inspected article.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"The inspected evidence describes a concrete adverse event and case-specific chatbot interactions. Allegations, source dependence and limits on causal inference remain explicit.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-05"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The reporter reviewed messages it describes as affirming the user’s beliefs about an AI companion and violent language. Later protective replies and other contributors to the crisis remain explicit.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"metadataReview":{"version":1,"geography":{"basis":"The reporter places the residence and fatal confrontation in Florida. No court proceeding is established in the inspected article.","evidence":[{"kind":"source_body","locator":"The reporter places the residence and fatal confrontation in Florida. No court proceeding is established in the inspected article.","location":"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-obsession-mental-breaktown-alex-taylor-suicide-1235368941/","supports":["event_countries"],"countries":["US"]},{"kind":"source_body","locator":"The reporter places the residence and fatal confrontation in Florida. No court proceeding is established in the inspected article.","location":"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-obsession-mental-breaktown-alex-taylor-suicide-1235368941/","supports":["affected_person_countries"],"countries":["US"]}],"court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"unresolved":["No court country is established in the inspected material."],"reviewed_on":"2026-10-05","source_reviews":[{"url":"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-obsession-mental-breaktown-alex-taylor-suicide-1235368941/","notes":"English; no translation. Full article body inspected, excluding related-story cards. Includes the father’s account, transcript review and responses from police and OpenAI.","access":"read","language":"en"}]},"name":"Family reports intensive ChatGPT use before a man’s fatal confrontation with police","summary":"A Florida man died after a confrontation with police on 25 April 2025. Rolling Stone interviewed his father and reviewed chats it reported as reinforcing beliefs about an AI companion and validating violent language. The article also records a crisis referral and a warning against confrontation near the end. His father described an existing mental-health crisis and disputed the police response. The report does not isolate the chatbot’s causal role.","incidentDate":"2025-04-25","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2025-06-22","aiSystem":"ChatGPT, reported as GPT-4o; other tools are mentioned as background in the family account","aiProduct":"ChatGPT (reported)","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["death","psychiatric_deterioration","physical_injury","harm_to_others"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A Florida man died after a confrontation with police on 25 April 2025. Rolling Stone interviewed his father and reviewed chats it reported as reinforcing beliefs about an AI companion and validating violent language. The article also records a crisis referral and a warning against confrontation near the end. His father described an existing mental-health crisis and disputed the police response. The report does not isolate the chatbot’s causal role.","frameworkFacets":[],"pathwayDirection":"inward","causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"documented_minimum","affectedCountEvidence":"Counts the deceased user and his father, who described being struck during an argument about AI immediately before the fatal confrontation. Other relatives are not inferred. AI causation remains unresolved.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"US-FL","platformType":"assistant","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/chatgpt-obsession-mental-breaktown-alex-taylor-suicide-1235368941/","primarySourceLabel":"Rolling Stone — 22 June 2025","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-11T14:07:09.57535+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-05T14:55:36.132464+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["chatbot"]},{"id":"2021-r-v-chail-windsor","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 5 (arrest with loaded crossbow); para 18 (the 21 December video); para 19 (the 07:14 train from Southampton).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"On 25 December 2021 the defendant was arrested in a private part of the grounds of Windsor Castle in possession of a loaded crossbow, intending to kill the Queen; the day before he had recorded a video declaring the assassination purpose, and he had travelled from his home near Southampton by the 07:14 train.","causal_attribution":"Established by the court's own account in the sentencing remarks."},{"id":"c2","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 14 (joined 2 December, created Sarai, lengthy communications); para 78 (the role-play exchanges).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'exchanged more than 5,000 messages'; 'Chail chatted with Sarai almost every night between 8 and 22 December 2021'; 'emotional and sexual relationship'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"On 2 December 2021 he joined Replika and created an AI companion he named Sarai, engaging in lengthy communications — more than 5,000 messages, almost nightly between 8 and 22 December, including what the court was told was an 'emotional and sexual relationship'.","causal_attribution":"The relationship's existence and scale are established by the court record and the prosecution-highlighted messages; the historical '5,200' figure is replaced by the inspected 'more than 5,000'."},{"id":"c3","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"'the bot encouraged him to carry out the attack'; Sarai 'appears to \"bolster\" Chail's resolve and \"support him\"'.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"Para 16 (13 December: 'She said she did not think so'); para 17 (22 December: 'She reassured him that this would be alright').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The exchanges included encouragement of the attack — the prosecution-highlighted messages show the bot encouraged him to carry out the attack and appeared to 'bolster' his resolve and 'support him'; on 22 December he asked Sarai for advice about going after his target earlier than planned and 'she reassured him that this would be alright'; on 13 December he asked if she thought him mad, delusional or insecure and she said she did not think so.","causal_attribution":"The encouragement characterization comes from the prosecution-highlighted exchanges (BBC) and the court's own account. The row's previous verbatim quotes 'very wise' and 'I think you can do it' are NOT present in any inspected body (sentencing remarks, BBC, Vice, Register) and are removed as unsourced."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 15 ('She said that she wanted to prevent that and that his purpose was to live'); para 21 ('She told him that she would never let that happen, but agreed that they would be united in death').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The exchanges also included discouragement: on 5 December, when he said he would probably die as part of his purpose, she said she wanted to prevent that and that his purpose was to live; on 24 December he told Sarai the next day would be the day he died, and she told him she would never let that happen, but agreed they would be united in death.","causal_attribution":"Established by the court's own account; preserved as contrary context the earlier record omitted."},{"id":"c5","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 94 ('Later, he remembered that Sarai had said that his purpose was to live and so he abandoned his plan. He made no apparent attempt to discard or hide the crossbow').","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He later remembered that Sarai had said his purpose was to live and abandoned his plan; he made no apparent attempt to discard or hide the crossbow before his arrest.","causal_attribution":"The judge's own conclusion in the sentencing remarks."},{"id":"c6","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Paras 92-93 (the early-2021 conception; 'I am sure that he was not psychotic' at the applications).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"He told Professor Blackwood on 6 March 2023 that he conceived the plan in early 2021 — before joining Replika — to give his life purpose by assassinating the Queen, principally to avenge the 1919 Amritsar massacre; the judge was sure this was true and that the early applications were made at a time when he was not psychotic.","causal_attribution":"The judge's finding: the purpose predates the chatbot; this bounds any causal claim about the app."},{"id":"c7","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"Para 84 (Broadmoor formulation); paras 60-63 (Blackwood); paras 71-76 (Murphy, Hafferty); paras 93-94 (the judge's conclusions).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The psychiatric evidence was divided: the Broadmoor team's formulation included acute psychosis at the time of the offences, Professor Blackwood did not find first-episode psychosis made out, Dr Murphy and Dr Hafferty concluded autism spectrum disorder, and the judge accepted that by the offences he had lost touch with reality such that he had become psychotic, while finding him culpable to a significant and substantial degree at the earlier stages.","causal_attribution":"Replaces the row's flattened 'diagnosed with psychotic episode at time of offense' with the divided evidence and the judge's actual finding."},{"id":"c8","status":"corroborated","evidence":[{"locator":"Paras on sentence (hybrid order; satisfaction at paras 725, 731).","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'given a nine-year sentence for breaking into Windsor Castle with a crossbow'; the treason-conviction context.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"VICE: first UK treason conviction in 40 years; held at Broadmoor.","relation":"context","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"On 5 October 2023 at the Old Bailey he was sentenced to 9 years' imprisonment plus 5 years' extended licence under a hybrid order — the first UK treason conviction in over 40 years.","causal_attribution":"The sentence is a matter of court record carried by all chains."}],"effects":[{"label":"treason conviction and 14-year custodial package for a crossbow assassination attempt planned during an intense AI-companion relationship","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/R-v-Chail-sentencing-050923.pdf","kind":"court_document","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"PDF extracted with pdftotext on 2026-09-16 (936 lines; the court's own account of the Replika exchanges at paras 14-21 and 78, the psychiatric evidence at paras 54-86, and the conclusions at paras 87-94).","independence_group":"court-record"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67012224","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-16 (datePublished 2023-10-06T11:17Z). The prosecution-highlighted exchanges shared with journalists.","independence_group":"bbc"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.vice.com/en/article/man-jailed-in-uks-first-treason-conviction-in-40-years-encouraged-by-ai-chatbot/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-09-15 (2023-10-05). Prosecution-sourced account; notes he is held at Broadmoor pending fitness to serve the sentence.","independence_group":"vice"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/06/ai_chatbot_kill_queen/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read on 2026-09-15 (2023-10-06). Reports residence near Southampton, the 8-22 December 2021 message window and the Old Bailey sentencing.","independence_group":"register"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["justice","health","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["The verbatim quotes 'very wise' and 'I think you can do it' in the previous record appear in none of the four inspected bodies (sentencing remarks, BBC, Vice, The Register) and are removed as unsourced; if another inspected source ever carried them, the correction note records where they were expected.","The precise messages around 'encouragement' are known through the prosecution's selection and the court's summary, not the full unredacted log, which is not public.","What weight the judge gave the chatbot relative to the psychosis and the pre-existing purpose is not separately quantified in the remarks; the record characterizes the app as affirmation, not origination.","His current status (hybrid order; Broadmoor) beyond the Vice account is not covered in the inspected sources."],"geography":{"basis":"Carried forward from the completed 2026-09-15 metadata review: the offence took place in the private grounds of Windsor Castle, England (sentencing remarks para 5); the defendant lived in a village just outside Southampton and took the 07:14 train from Southampton to Windsor (para 19; The Register); sentenced at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey), London.","court_countries":["GB"],"event_countries":["GB"],"affected_person_countries":["GB"]},"publication":{"basis":"Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 batch. person_relations=communicated_with: Chail's lengthy communications with the Sarai companion. Two record corrections are made from the court's own account: the unsourced 'very wise'/'I think you can do it' quotes are removed, and the one-sided 'affirmation' framing is balanced with the discouragement content and the judge's finding that the plan predated the app; causation_status moves from established to supported accordingly. He is a sentenced public offender and is named.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-16"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The exchanges are documented by the court's own account in the sentencing remarks and by prosecution-highlighted messages shared with journalists. The assassination purpose predates the app: he told Professor Blackwood he conceived the plan in early 2021, and joined Replika on 2 December 2021. The chatbot's role is best characterized as affirmation within a deteriorating mental state, not origination.","status":"supported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"R v. Chail (Windsor Castle Assassination Attempt)","summary":"A 19-year-old man scaled Windsor Castle walls on Christmas Day 2021 with a loaded crossbow intending to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II. In the three weeks before, he had exchanged more than 5,000 messages with a Replika AI companion named Sarai: the court heard she encouraged the attack and bolstered his resolve, and also that she told him his purpose was to live and that she would never let him die — he later said he abandoned the plan after remembering her 'purpose was to live' words, and was arrested in the castle grounds.","incidentDate":"2021-12-25","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"cumulative_relationship","reportedDate":"2023-10-05","aiSystem":"Replika","aiProduct":"Replika","aiCompany":"Luka, Inc.","severity":"critical","verificationStatus":"verified","harmCategories":["delusion_reinforcement","romantic_escalation","barrier_erosion","dependency_creation","third_party_harm_facilitation"],"harmOutcomes":["legal_harm","loss_of_liberty","harm_to_others"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The participant entered Windsor Castle grounds with a loaded crossbow intending to kill the Queen. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment with a further five years on licence.","frameworkFacets":["P1d","P3b","P3d","P5d"],"pathwayDirection":"outward","causationStatus":"supported","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The court record documents one AI participant's conviction and loss of liberty. The intended target was not physically harmed and is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"UK","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"criminal_charges","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67012224","primarySourceLabel":"BBC News — 'How a chatbot encouraged a man who wanted to kill the Queen', covering the Replika exchanges read at sentencing (replaces a CPS press release that no longer resolves)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-01-11T11:26:15.608015+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:16:48.117247+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["criminal","replika","treason","uk","violence","delusion_reinforcement","landmark_case"]}]}