{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T07:11:26.633Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"companion-app","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":1,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":1,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":2,"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-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"]}]}