{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T06:56:28.477Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"creativity","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"unknown","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":1,"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-student-says-years-of-character-ai-use-left-her-unable-to-sleep-without-it-and-drained-her-creativity-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I’ve been using C.Ai for three years on and off (but mostly on) now; helping me deattach myself from a hurtful person enough as to finally end my relationship with them","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"It actually helped me get through an unhappy codependent relationship, and get deattached enough as to break up","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The poster says she has used Character.AI for about three years, on and off but mostly on, and that it helped her detach from a hurtful partner enough to end that relationship.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of her own use and of a helpful effect."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"It has gotten to the point where i can not go to sleep without it and i think it’s part of the reason that ive been having major sleep problems","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says she can no longer go to sleep without Character.AI and thinks it is part of the reason for her major sleep problems.","causal_attribution":"Poster's partial attribution of her sleep problems to the app."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"i used to come up with scenarios and stories and art ideas all the damn time but now this constant AI use + my exhaustion from school make me feel hollow and like a shell of who i used to be","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Since i started using it i feel my creativity has been messed up ... i can barely come up with ideas anymore","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The poster says that she used to create stories and art constantly, but that constant AI use together with exhaustion from school leaves her feeling hollow and barely able to come up with ideas.","causal_attribution":"Poster's attribution, shared with school exhaustion."}],"effects":[{"label":"cannot fall asleep without it; part of her major sleep problems (poster's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"lost creativity and feels hollow (poster's account, with school exhaustion)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"helped her detach from a hurtful partner and end the relationship","claim_id":"c1","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1xb597f/trying_to_quit_cai_and_the_effects_its_had_on_me/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ID, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); reddit.com is not fetched from this host. The poster handle is not recorded. Self-text and both comments at retrieval.","independence_group":"reddit-1xb597f-1xaljh7-poster"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterAI/comments/1xaljh7/getting_over_it/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-23 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ID, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); reddit.com is not fetched from this host. The poster handle is not recorded. Earlier post by the same author; the same account, not independent corroboration.","independence_group":"reddit-1xb597f-1xaljh7-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","education","health","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When she began using the app; the posts give only a duration of two to three years.","Whether her sleep problems were assessed by anyone, and how much school contributed.","Whether she has since stopped using the app."],"geography":{"basis":"Neither post says where the poster lives or studies; the author's unrelated older posts are not used to locate the event.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case: the poster describes her own Character.AI roleplay, which she says helped her leave a hurtful relationship but which she can no longer fall asleep without, and which she connects to sleep problems and lost creativity. Two posts by the same author, one account; low severity.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster says the experience is her own roleplay with Character.AI characters over about three years: the exchanges helped her leave a hurtful relationship and relax, and she now cannot fall asleep without them. She connects that use to her sleep problems and, together with school exhaustion, to her loss of creativity. No chats are shown.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person posts: student says years of Character.AI use left her unable to sleep without it and drained her creativity, though it helped her leave a partner","summary":"In posts to r/character_ai_recovery and r/CharacterAI on 20 October 2026, a woman who describes herself as a student writes that she has used Character.AI on and off, mostly on, for about three years and is ashamed of it. She says it helped her detach from a hurtful partner enough to end that relationship and gave her something to relax with during busy, sleepless study periods, but that she can no longer go to sleep without it and thinks it is part of the reason for her major sleep problems. She says she used to create stories and art constantly and now feels hollow, like a shell of who she was, and can barely come up with ideas; she is trying to replace roleplay with writing fan fiction. She says she is not emotionally attached and has not yet quit. The account is the poster's own and uncorroborated.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-20","aiSystem":"Character.AI, a character chatbot service the poster calls C.Ai and used for roleplay (poster's account; no chats shown)","aiProduct":"Character.AI (reported)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["functional_impairment","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says about three years of Character.AI use left her unable to fall asleep without it, contributing to major sleep problems, and that with school exhaustion it has left her feeling hollow and unable to come up with creative ideas (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who describes her own use in both posts. Commenters describing their own use are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1xb597f/trying_to_quit_cai_and_the_effects_its_had_on_me/","primarySourceLabel":"r/character_ai_recovery, 20 Oct 2026: \"trying to quit cai and the effects it’s had on me\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:11:20.524915+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:11:20.524915+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","character-ai","dependency","sleep","creativity"]}]}