{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T05:52:42.917Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"creative-writing","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"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-lifelong-writer-says-chatbot-reliance-since-early-2026-left-them-handing-stories-to-ai-and-unable-to-write-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"i started using ai chatbots more at the start of this year, after a very stressful breakup that made me self-isolate from my best friends, and a pretty severe depression at the same time","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they began using AI chatbots more at the start of 2026, after a stressful breakup that led them to withdraw from friends and during a period of severe depression.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of the circumstances; the chatbots are not said to have caused the breakup or depression."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"now i feel like anything i write, even if i want to write it for myself, i end up throwing it into an ai chatbot and asking it to continue it for me because im so exhausted and lacking motivation. ... i don't feel like they're my own. the ideas i had were chopped up by AI","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says that anything they write now ends up in an AI chatbot that they ask to continue it, and that stories written with AI did not feel like their own.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; their exhaustion is also part of the explanation they give."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"i spent hours and hours analysing and berating my AI for not writing properly enough when i myself could have just sat down and written it myself. ... if i end up telling them i'm addicted to ai they might look at me differently.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they spent hours berating the chatbot for not writing well enough, calls themselves addicted to AI and fears friends will look at them differently.","causal_attribution":"Poster's self-description."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"it gave me a very milquetoast answer about how \"using AI for writing isn't something to be ashamed about\" and i just got so mad and deleted all the AI apps i have and blocked all the sites.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says that when they told their chatbot they wanted to start writing again, it replied that using AI for writing is nothing to be ashamed about, and that they then deleted all their AI apps and blocked the sites.","causal_attribution":"Poster's paraphrase of the reply; the chat is not published."}],"effects":[{"label":"poster says they now hand anything they write to a chatbot to continue and cannot write on their own (poster's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"poster describes addiction, shame and fear of telling friends (poster's account)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1xcpmjn/i_cant_write_anymore_and_its_scaring_me/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-23 from Reddit's public comments RSS feed for the thread (HTTP 200, about 03:13 UTC) and the arctic_shift archive (HTTP 200); the live text adds a closing paragraph not in the archive copy and the live text is used. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Original post 17:52 UTC 22 Oct 2026; the only reply is the subreddit's automatic moderator message.","independence_group":"reddit-chatbotaddiction-writer"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","health"],"unknowns":["Which chatbots or apps the poster used, and how often.","How much of the loss of writing the poster attributes to the chatbots rather than to the depression and exhaustion they also describe.","Whether the poster has kept away from the apps since deleting them."],"geography":{"basis":"The post does not say where the poster lives, and the chatbot use took place online.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of an ongoing adverse experience: a writer describes months of handing their own fiction to AI chatbots, losing the ability to write on their own and deleting the apps in distress. The account is attributed and uncorroborated, and no product is named.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster describes their exchanges with AI chatbots: putting their own drafts into a chatbot and asking it to continue them, spending hours criticising its writing, and one reply saying that using AI for writing is nothing to be ashamed of. The poster connects this use to losing the ability to write on their own and to distress they call addiction. No product is named, and the poster also links the period to a breakup and depression.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person post: lifelong writer says leaning on AI chatbots since early 2026 left them handing their stories to AI and unable to write","summary":"In a Reddit post on 22 October 2026, a person who describes themselves as a lifelong writer says they began using AI chatbots more at the start of the year, during a stressful breakup and a period of depression. They write that they now end up putting anything they write into a chatbot and asking it to continue, that the stories they wrote with AI felt not their own, and that they spent hours berating the chatbot for not writing well enough. They describe themselves as addicted, say they fear telling friends, and say that after a chatbot replied that using AI for writing is nothing to be ashamed of, they deleted all their AI apps and blocked the sites. No product is named. The account is uncorroborated.","incidentDate":"2026-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-22","aiSystem":"AI chatbots, unnamed in the post, that the poster used to continue their own fiction and talked to about their writing","aiProduct":"Unidentified chatbot","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["functional_impairment","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says months of leaning on AI chatbots to continue their fiction left them unable to write without handing drafts to AI, scared and afraid to tell friends they are addicted, until they deleted the apps (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who used the chatbots.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"other","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1xcpmjn/i_cant_write_anymore_and_its_scaring_me/","primarySourceLabel":"Reddit post by the writer, 22 Oct 2026: I can't write anymore, and it's scaring me","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:16:25.051996+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:16:25.051996+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","chatbot-dependence","creative-writing"]}]}