{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-08T04:44:30.831Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"companion","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":4,"coverage":{"cases":4,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":3,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":1,"coreRelations":4,"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-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-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-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"]}]}