{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-11-07T02:12:31.730Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"first-person","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2023","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":4,"coverage":{"cases":4,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":4,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":1,"coreRelations":2,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":1,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":1},"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":"2023-duolingo-contract-translator-says-offboarded-with-half-their-team-as-company-shifted-translation-work-to-ai","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I was one of the translations off boarded. I’m so sad.'; 'I worked there for five years. Our team had four core members and two of us got the boot.'; 'And I worked in one of their top three languages.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'writing that they were offboarded as a contractor on December 15, with a screenshot of an email from the company attached to the post'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The poster says they had worked for Duolingo for five years as a contract translator in one of its top three languages and were off-boarded in December 2023, and that two of their team's four core members were let go.","causal_attribution":"The poster's own account; TechCrunch relays it."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The reason they gave is that AI can come up with content and translations, alternative translations, and pretty much anything else translators did.'; 'The two who remained will just review AI content to make sure it’s acceptable.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'They kept a couple people on each team and call them content curators. They simply check the AI crap that gets produced and then push it through'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The poster says the reason given was that AI can produce content and translations, and that the remaining team members now review AI content.","causal_attribution":"The poster attributes the AI reason to the company; no written statement of that reason to the poster was retrieved, and the attached email gives no reason."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The company confirmed it cut around 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023'; 'the company also confirmed that part of the reason it no longer needed as many people was attributable to AI.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'While not all layoffs were due to the technology, the language learning company let go of some contractors at the end of 2023 to make room for AI-related changes in how content is generated and shared.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"},{"locator":"'it would be an “oversimplification” to say that AI is the sole reason for the reduction in jobs.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"Duolingo said it cut about 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023, that part of the reason it needed fewer people was AI, and that AI was not the sole reason.","causal_attribution":"Company statements relayed by three outlets; one origin (Duolingo), so reported."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'A company spokesperson explained to us that GPT is used to translate sentences and then “human experts validate that the output quality is high enough for teaching'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'Duolingo says AI will increasingly be used to perform tasks such as creating sentences for courses, producing lists of acceptable translations and reviewing user error reports'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Duolingo said GPT is used to translate sentences, with human experts validating the output, and that AI would increasingly create sentences, produce lists of acceptable translations and review error reports.","causal_attribution":"Company's description of its own AI use."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'the company disputed calling the departures “layoffs,” saying that only a “small minority” of Duolingo’s contractors were let go as their projects wrapped.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"'Duolingo says no full-time employees were involved in the layoffs and that it attempted to find alternate roles for all those being let go before turning to “off-boarding” as a last option.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"Duolingo disputed calling the departures layoffs, said only a small minority of contractors were let go as projects wrapped, that no full-time employees were involved, and that it tried to find alternate roles first.","causal_attribution":"Company's qualifications of the cuts."}],"effects":[{"label":"contract translator off-boarded after five years, with half the team (poster's account)","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"poster says the stated reason was that AI can do translators' work","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"Duolingo cut about 10% of contractors, partly because of AI by its own account","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/18sx06i/big_layoff_at_duolingo/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26: the post and the poster's 13 comments in the thread through the arctic_shift archive API (post by author, comments by link ID), and the live post through Reddit's RSS feed at about 03:00 UTC, whose text matches the archive. The live feed now shows the author as deleted; the poster's comments could not be checked live (HTTP 429). The handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-duolingo-translator-poster"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2024/01/09/duolingo-cut-10-of-its-contractor-workforce-as-the-company-embraces-ai/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200, full article body).","independence_group":"techcrunch-duolingo-2024-01-09"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/09/tech/duolingo-layoffs-due-to-ai/index.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200, full article body).","independence_group":"cnn-duolingo-2024-01-09"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.semafor.com/article/01/09/2024/duolingo-cuts-contractors-as-it-further-embraces-ai","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 (HTTP 200, full article body).","independence_group":"semafor-duolingo-2024-01-09"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["How many contractors were let go in total and how many of those departures Duolingo attributes to AI.","What the company told the poster about the reason in writing; the attached exit-survey email gives none.","Where the poster and the other contractors worked.","Whether the poster later found other work or pursued any claim."],"geography":{"basis":"Duolingo is headquartered in Pittsburgh, but the sources do not say where the contractors worked or lived; headquarters is not treated as the event location.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a consequential response to a decision to adopt AI: a contract translator's first-person account of being off-boarded with half their team, and Duolingo's own statements that it cut about 10% of contractors partly because of AI. The translator's account is attributed and the company's qualification that AI was not the sole reason is kept.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-26"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"This is a consequential response to a decision to adopt AI. Duolingo told TechCrunch that GPT translates sentences before human experts validate them, told CNN that contractors were let go to make room for AI-related changes in how content is generated, and confirmed to Bloomberg (as TechCrunch reports) that part of the reason it needed fewer people was AI. The translator says the reason given to them was that AI can produce content and translations. No AI output or action toward the translator is described, and the company says AI was not the sole reason.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["unknown"]},"name":"Duolingo contract translator says they and half their team were off-boarded as the app shifted translation work to AI; company said AI was part of the reason","summary":"In a post and comments on r/duolingo on 28 December 2023, a person who says they had worked as a contract translator for Duolingo for five years writes that they were off-boarded about two weeks earlier, that two of their team's four core members were let go, and that the reason given was that AI can produce content and translations, with the two who remained reviewing AI output. In January 2024 Duolingo told TechCrunch, CNN and Semafor that it had cut about 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023. It told CNN that not all of the cuts were due to AI but that contractors were let go to make room for AI-related changes in how content is generated, and told Semafor that calling AI the sole reason would be an oversimplification. It disputed the word layoffs and said only a small minority of contractors were let go as projects wrapped. The translator's account of what they were told is theirs alone; no company statement addresses any individual contractor.","incidentDate":"2023-12-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"month","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2023-12-28","aiSystem":"OpenAI GPT models that Duolingo uses to generate course sentences and translations, which human experts then validate, according to the company and TechCrunch","aiProduct":"GPT-4 (reported)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"credible","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm","psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A contract translator says they lost five years of work with Duolingo, along with half their team, and were told AI could now do translators' work; Duolingo confirmed cutting about 10% of contractors and said AI was part, but not all, of the reason.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":2,"affectedCountStatus":"partial","affectedCountEvidence":"Two people are counted: the poster and the second of their team's four core members who, by the poster's account, was also let go. Duolingo says about 10% of its contractors were cut but gave no number, and the AI-related share is unstated, so other affected contractors are unquantified. Neither counted person is a direct AI user; the harm is the company's staffing decision.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"other","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/18sx06i/big_layoff_at_duolingo/","primarySourceLabel":"r/duolingo, 28 December 2023: \"Big layoff at Duolingo\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-26T03:09:51.720373+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T03:09:51.720373+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["employment","contractors","translation","ai-replacement","institutional-use","consequential-response","reddit","first-person"]},{"id":"2023-character-ai-user-says-years-of-after-school-roleplay-cost-sleep-concentration-and-grades-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'back in 2023 when the site was new and I found out about it'; 'I would come back from school and sit on character ai for hours'; 'I spent almost 2.5 years living like that'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they found Character.AI in 2023 and spent almost two and a half years using it for hours after school, thinking about roleplay ideas when away from it.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of their own use."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I lost my ability to concentrate in class and I would go to school with like 3 hours of sleep because I’d be using c.ai until I feel asleep'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the use cost them their ability to concentrate in class and sent them to school on about three hours of sleep because they used the site until they fell asleep.","causal_attribution":"Poster's attribution of the lost sleep and concentration to their Character.AI use."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'it really affected my grades, I didn’t do bad but could’ve done so much better than I had done'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the use affected their grades: they did not do badly but could have done much better.","causal_attribution":"Poster's attribution; no school record is shown."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'now that I have kind of quit for a few months, relapsing here and there'; 'after quitting for a few months I’ve noticed my sleep has improved, my cognitive abilities have improved'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they have mostly quit for a few months, delete their account after relapses, and that their sleep, attention span and hobbies have improved since.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of recovery after stopping use."}],"effects":[{"label":"lost sleep and concentration in class during years of use (poster's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"lower grades than the poster says they could have achieved","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"improved sleep, attention and hobbies after quitting (poster's account)","claim_id":"c4","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1x7aac7/i_wish_i_never_found_out_about_cai/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-21 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ID search, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); self-text and all four comments at retrieval, one of them by the poster. reddit.com is not fetched from this host. The poster handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-chatbotaddiction-1x7aac7-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["education","everyday_life","health"],"unknowns":["How many hours a day the poster spent on the site and what the roleplay contained; no chats are shown.","The poster's age and type of school during the years of use.","The poster's actual grades; no school record is shown.","Where the poster lives or used the site.","The poster gives the period of use as almost two and a half years in this post and as almost three years in comments elsewhere the same day."],"geography":{"basis":"The post does not say where the poster lives, studies or used the site; the subreddit and the language of the post are not evidence of location.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the public-forum rule as a first-person account of about two and a half years of Character.AI roleplay from 2023 that the poster says displaced sleep and concentration and lowered their grades, with the recovery they report after quitting. Described with attribution and without corroboration.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-21"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster says the experience is their own roleplay with Character.AI's character chatbots from 2023: hours on the site after school, continued until they fell asleep. They connect those exchanges to lost sleep, lost concentration in class and lower grades, and say these improved after they stopped. No chat content or usage record is shown.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person post: Character.AI user says about two and a half years of after-school roleplay from 2023 cost them sleep, concentration and better grades","summary":"In a post to r/ChatbotAddiction on 16 October 2026, a person writes that they found Character.AI in 2023, when the site was new, and call that the worst mistake of their life. They say that for almost two and a half years they spent hours on the site after school, thought about new roleplay ideas when they were not on it, and stopped only for about a month before exams. They write that they lost the ability to concentrate in class, went to school on about three hours of sleep because they used the site until they fell asleep, and that their grades suffered: not badly, they say, but they could have done much better. They say they have mostly quit for a few months, with relapses after which they delete their account, and that their sleep, attention span and hobbies have since improved. The account is uncorroborated and no chat content is shown.","incidentDate":"2023-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-16","aiSystem":"Character.AI, a character chatbot site the poster calls c.ai and used for roleplay (poster's account; no chats or usage records shown)","aiProduct":"Character.AI (reported)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["educational_harm","functional_impairment"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says about two and a half years of after-school Character.AI roleplay from 2023 left them going to school on about three hours of sleep, unable to concentrate in class and with lower grades than they could have achieved (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who describes their own use of Character.AI. Commenters are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1x7aac7/i_wish_i_never_found_out_about_cai/","primarySourceLabel":"r/ChatbotAddiction, 16 Oct 2026: \"I wish I never found out about c.ai\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-21T03:08:46.887874+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-21T03:08:46.887874+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","character-ai","dependency","sleep","education"]},{"id":"2023-person-hired-for-documentation-and-marketing-copy-says-employer-rejected-work-on-chatgpt-verdicts-then-fired-them-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"a guy hired me to work on his company's documentation and public facing marketing copy based on my years and years of experience","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says a man hired them, on the strength of years of experience, to work on his company's documentation and public-facing marketing copy.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"he then rejected my work day in and day out because chatgpt had told him it wasn't good because of hallucinated errors","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says he then rejected their work day after day because ChatGPT had told him it was not good, which the poster attributes to hallucinated errors.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account of the employer's reliance on ChatGPT; the posts do not quote ChatGPT's output."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"on friday, i had a little meeting with him and the marketing manager and i was like hey, listen, this shit cannot continue, either you respect me as a person with skills and experience or im out. monday morning i was out","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"},{"locator":"i got fired over email","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The poster says that after a Friday meeting with him and the marketing manager, at which the poster said they would leave unless their skills and experience were respected, they were out on Monday morning and were fired by email.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the dismissal followed the poster's ultimatum about the rejections."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"all the guy had to say was \"some people know how to work with me and some don't\". at least he paid me for two months of work upfront.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The poster says the employer's only explanation was that some people know how to work with him and some do not, and that he had paid the poster for two months of work upfront.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; context on the dismissal and payment."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"this was in 2023.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster dates these events to 2023.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."}],"effects":[{"label":"work rejected day after day on the strength of ChatGPT's assessments (poster's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"fired by email after objecting to the rejections (poster's account)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xhavyduiuipgxrvrg7o5ssy6/post/3my5zw7z3os2e","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-19 through the public Bluesky API (app.bsky.feed.getPostThread and the author's feed via getAuthorFeed, HTTP 200); no translation and no human reviewer. The poster's handle and display name are not recorded. Root post, 16:34 UTC 18 Oct 2026, quoting another user's prompt about short job tenures.","independence_group":"bluesky-documentation-copy-poster-chatgpt-review"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xhavyduiuipgxrvrg7o5ssy6/post/3my5zzkuy7k2e","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-19 through the public Bluesky API (app.bsky.feed.getPostThread and the author's feed via getAuthorFeed, HTTP 200); no translation and no human reviewer. The poster's handle and display name are not recorded. The poster's own reply to s1 (16:36 UTC); same author, same source group.","independence_group":"bluesky-documentation-copy-poster-chatgpt-review"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xhavyduiuipgxrvrg7o5ssy6/post/3my623mmjos2e","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-19 through the public Bluesky API (app.bsky.feed.getPostThread and the author's feed via getAuthorFeed, HTTP 200); no translation and no human reviewer. The poster's handle and display name are not recorded. The poster's own reply to s2 (16:37 UTC); same author, same source group.","independence_group":"bluesky-documentation-copy-poster-chatgpt-review"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["others_use"],"contexts":["work"],"unknowns":["What the employer submitted to ChatGPT, what it said about the work and how the poster learned of its assessments.","What errors ChatGPT reported and whether any were real.","The employer's account of the rejections and the dismissal.","Where the poster and the company were, when in 2023 the events happened and how long the job lasted.","Whether the poster was an employee or a contractor."],"geography":{"basis":"The posts do not say where the poster or the company was located.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account, in three posts by one author, of an employer rejecting the author's work on the strength of ChatGPT's assessments and then dismissing the author after the author objected. Described with attribution and without corroboration; the poster's own ultimatum before the dismissal and the upfront payment are recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-19"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster says the employer rejected their documentation and marketing copy day after day because ChatGPT had told him it was not good, and attributes ChatGPT's verdicts to hallucinated errors. That describes ChatGPT's output being used in the employer's decisions about the poster's work, which the poster connects to the dispute that ended with the poster's dismissal. The posts do not quote the output, say what was submitted to it or say how the poster learned what it said.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["informed_decision_about"]},"name":"First-person posts: person hired for documentation and marketing copy says employer rejected their work daily because ChatGPT called it poor, then fired them","summary":"In three linked Bluesky posts on 18 October 2026, written in answer to another user's call for stories of short job tenures, a person writes that a man hired them on the strength of years of experience to work on his company's documentation and public-facing marketing copy, and that he then rejected their work day after day because ChatGPT had told him it was not good. The poster attributes ChatGPT's verdicts to hallucinated errors. The poster says that after they told him and the marketing manager at a Friday meeting that this could not continue and that they would leave unless their skills and experience were respected, they were out by Monday morning, fired by email, and that he had paid them for two months of work upfront. The poster dates the events to 2023. The posts do not quote ChatGPT's output or say how the poster knew what it said, and the employer's account is not recorded. The account is uncorroborated.","incidentDate":"2023-01-01","incidentKind":"bounded_series","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-10-18","aiSystem":"ChatGPT, which by the poster's account the employer consulted about the quality of the poster's documentation and marketing copy","aiProduct":"ChatGPT (reported)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["professional_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says the employer rejected their work day after day because ChatGPT said it was not good and then fired them by email after they objected (first-person account, uncorroborated; the poster says two months of work had been paid upfront).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":0,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":1,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who did not use ChatGPT and was affected through the employer's use of it. No other worker is described.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","platformType":"chatbot","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xhavyduiuipgxrvrg7o5ssy6/post/3my5zw7z3os2e","primarySourceLabel":"Bluesky post by the poster, 18 Oct 2026: employer rejected documentation and copy work because ChatGPT said it was not good","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-19T03:06:37.117164+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-19T03:06:37.117164+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","bluesky","workplace","chatgpt"]},{"id":"2023-character-ai-minor-describes-being-unable-to-stop-roleplay-chatbot-use-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'because I am still a minor'; 'had this problem since 2023'; 'I downloaded C.ai because everyone was downloading it'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they are a minor, have had the problem since 2023, and downloaded Character.AI because everyone was downloading it.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I chat with the bots using a fictional persona of myself'; 'tried writing fanfics, reading fanfics, but nothing seems to work out'; 'roleplay for maybe like 10 minutes'; 'it would be an endless loop'; 'sometimes the need to go on that app eats me alive'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they chat with the bots through a fictional persona in short recurring sessions, have tried fan fiction as a substitute, and cannot stop.","causal_attribution":"Poster attributes the continued use to wanting to experiment with how the bots respond; no assessment of dependence is described."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I feel so embarrassed after using C.ai every time'; 'disgusting and embarrassed after using it'; 'actively trying to get off of the AI chatbot apps'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they feel embarrassed after every use of the app and are actively trying to stop.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'I feel like a lot of you guys are taking my post the wrong way'; 'I have a bunch of friends'; 'we have actual social lives'; 'This is honestly just a guilty pleasure for me that I have to get rid of'; 'C.ai is honestly just a guilty pleasure that I need to get rid of'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"In an edit to the post and a later reply, the poster says they have friends, a job and many school activities, and describes their use of the app as a guilty pleasure they need to get rid of.","causal_attribution":"Not applicable: records the poster's own qualification of the account's severity."}],"effects":[{"label":"self-described inability to stop using roleplay chatbots since 2023 (poster's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"embarrassment and disgust after each use (poster's account)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/comments/1wxtnct/i_have_an_ai_chatbot_addiction_please_give_me_tips/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-05: full self-text and the comment tree (26 comments, one by the poster), retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID. Re-read on 2026-10-12 in the live thread feed (post plus 37 comments) and the arctic_shift capture (40 comments, two by the poster): the post now carries an edit by the poster, and a second poster reply was added on 5 October. The poster handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-antiai-chatbot-addiction-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life"],"unknowns":["How often and for how long in total the poster uses the app.","Whether the use has affected school or sleep; the poster's later edit says they have friends and many activities.","Where the poster lives."],"geography":{"basis":"The poster does not say where they live; no country is recorded.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the charter's public first-person rule as a concrete first-person account of an ongoing adverse experience with a roleplay chatbot app, described with attribution and without corroboration. The poster's later edit, which describes an active social life and calls the use a guilty pleasure, is recorded as context. The poster says they are a minor; their handle and stated starting age are not recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-12"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster names C.ai (Character.AI) as the app they use and describes roleplay chats with its bots. Nothing beyond the poster's statement establishes the use.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person forum post: a self-described minor says they have been unable to stop using Character.AI since 2023 and feel disgust after each session","summary":"In a public forum post in October 2026, a person who says they are still a minor writes that they have had what they call an AI chatbot addiction since 2023, and that they downloaded Character.AI because, they say, everyone was downloading it. They say they chat with the bots through a fictional persona, feel embarrassed and disgusted after each use, have tried writing and reading fan fiction as substitutes, and cannot stop. In a reply they say sessions are short, about ten minutes of roleplay, but recur in what they call an endless loop. They ask other users for advice on quitting. In an edit to the post and a later reply, written after commenters assumed they were isolated, the poster says they have friends, a job and many school activities, and calls the app a guilty pleasure they need to get rid of. The account is the poster's alone and is uncorroborated.","incidentDate":"2023-01-01","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"year","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-04","aiSystem":"Character.AI roleplay chatbots (the poster writes C.ai)","aiProduct":"Character.AI (reported)","aiCompany":"Character Technologies, Inc.","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","loss_of_autonomy"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster, who says they are a minor, says they have been unable to stop using Character.AI roleplay chatbots since 2023 despite trying substitutes, and feel embarrassed and disgusted after each use (first-person account, uncorroborated; the word addiction is the poster's own).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster. Commenters who say they had the same problem are not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"minor","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/antiai/comments/1wxtnct/i_have_an_ai_chatbot_addiction_please_give_me_tips/","primarySourceLabel":"r/antiai, 4 October 2026: \"I have an AI chatbot addiction. Please give me tips.\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-05T03:16:20.030658+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-12T03:19:46.567229+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","character-ai","minor","compulsive-use","roleplay","self-described-addiction","communicated-with"]}]}