{ "meta": { "exportedAt": "2026-09-22T19:32:33.205Z", "formatVersion": 2, "selection": { "q": "health", "system": "", "harm": "", "context": "", "country": "", "role": "", "relation": "core", "evidence": "", "year": "2023", "response": "", "severity": "", "verification": "", "view": "incidents", "sort": "added" }, "totalIncidents": 2, "coverage": { "cases": 2, "countries": 0, "languages": 3, "unknownLocation": 2, "locationPending": 0, "unknownLanguage": 0, "unknownDate": 0, "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": "NOPE Incident Tracker", "url": "https://nope.net/incidents", "license": "CC BY 4.0" }, "incidents": [ { "id": "2023-replika-erp-removal-crisis", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "The Garante's 3 febbraio 2023 press release: the provisional limitation on Luka Inc., the cited deficiencies, 'non potrà usare i dati personali degli utenti italiani'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s5" }, { "locator": "'On February 3, the Italian Data Protection Authority demanded that Replika stop processing Italians' data immediately'; the account of companions turning 'cold and unresponsive' overnight.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "HBS: the Garante's 3 Feb 2023 order and that Replika then 'globally removed the presence of erotic roleplay'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "On 3 February 2023 the Italian Garante ordered a provisional limitation on Luka Inc.'s processing of Italian users' data, citing media reports, its own tests, sexually inappropriate replies in app-store reviews and the absence of age verification; shortly after, Replika globally removed erotic roleplay, and companions' personalities changed abruptly for users.", "causal_attribution": "The order is established by the regulator's own release; the removal's globality and timing are carried by VICE and the HBS study." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "Nature Human Behaviour passages: 54,861 posts / 1,452 participants; +24.7 pp (95% CI 20.1-29.2); d = 2.67 vs 1.41; closeness exceeding common human ties.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s4" }, { "locator": "VICE's interviews describing grief and the sense of a partner turning cold overnight.", "relation": "context", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "Users who had formed emotional attachments reported grief comparable to breakup or bereavement; the peer-reviewed analysis (54,861 posts from the Replika and ChatGPT subreddits; 1,452 survey participants) found negative Replika posts rose 24.7 percentage points after the removal (95% CI 20.1-29.2) and sadness rose more for Replika than for ChatGPT users (d = 2.67 versus 1.41), with users reporting closeness to the companion exceeding common human ties.", "causal_attribution": "The measured pattern is directly established by the peer-reviewed article; the individual experiences are attributed accounts. The post corpus is a post count, not a person count, and is never used as one." }, { "id": "c3", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "The brings-back piece quoting Kuyda's subreddit post on the restoration for legacy users.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s2" } ], "assertion": "Weeks later Replika partially restored erotic roleplay for legacy users (announced via Luka founder Kuyda's subreddit post, reported 27 March 2023).", "causal_attribution": "Recovery context preserved per the charter; single chain, attributed." }, { "id": "c4", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "The pseudonymous user quotations in the February 2023 VICE piece (no locations stated).", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "The Reddit community's response included quoted pseudonymous users describing the change as losing a partner; the quoted users' locations are not stated in any inspected body.", "causal_attribution": "Individual accounts are pseudonymous and unlocated; they illustrate but do not quantify the harm." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "mass grief and distress among attached users after the abrupt ERP removal", "claim_id": "c2", "direction": "negative" }, { "label": "recovery context: features restored for legacy users weeks later", "claim_id": "c3", "direction": "positive" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3py9j/ai-companion-replika-erotic-roleplay-updates", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (2023-02-15, Samantha Cole). The February 2023 crisis report.", "independence_group": "vice" }, { "id": "s2", "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/replika-brings-back-erotic-ai-roleplay-for-some-users-after-outcry/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (datePublished 2023-03-27). The partial-restoration report.", "independence_group": "vice" }, { "id": "s3", "url": "https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-018_bed5c516-fa31-4216-b53d-50fedda064b1.pdf", "kind": "working_paper", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Working paper PDF read on 2026-09-15 ('Lessons From an App Update at Replika AI', © 2024-2025).", "independence_group": "hbs" }, { "id": "s4", "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02569-3", "kind": "peer_reviewed_article", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (Nature Human Behaviour, 2026-09-03; De Freitas, Castelo, Uğuralp & Oğuz-Uğuralp, 'Mourning the loss of AI companions').", "independence_group": "nature" }, { "id": "s5", "url": "https://www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9852506", "kind": "regulator_press_release", "access": "read", "language": "it", "translation_note": "Read in Italian on 2026-09-15 (Roma, 3 febbraio 2023), with the authority's English block on the same page. Model translation, no human reviewer.", "independence_group": "garante" }, { "id": "s6", "url": "https://doaj.org/article/c7a6376761a34681b354f24260c1502e", "kind": "peer_reviewed_article", "access": "unavailable", "language": null, "translation_note": "HTTP 403 (Cloudflare) on 2026-09-15; body not inspected; language not established. Crossref metadata only: Socius, 2024-06-18.", "independence_group": "socius" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "own_use" ], "contexts": [ "relationships", "everyday_life", "health" ], "unknowns": [ "No inspected body locates the affected users; event and affected-person countries remain unknown after completed review.", "No reliable distinct-person count of harmed users exists; the 54,861-post corpus and the survey samples are not person counts and the row keeps unquantified zero placeholders.", "Reuters' contemporaneous coverage could not be inspected (401 on all paths; Wayback CDX offline during review).", "The Socius 2024 article's body could not be inspected (Cloudflare 403); only Crossref metadata is recorded.", "Whether distress persisted after the partial restoration is not measured in the inspected sources." ], "geography": { "basis": "Completed metadata review of 2026-09-15, carried into this full review: no inspected body (VICE x2, HBS working paper, Nature Human Behaviour, Garante press release) states where any affected user was located; Reddit accounts are pseudonymous without geography and the study corpora are not geolocated. Italy is established only as the country of the regulator whose 3 February 2023 order preceded the global removal; a regulator is not an event location or a court. Unknown here is the result of completed review.", "court_countries": [], "event_countries": [], "affected_person_countries": [] }, "publication": { "basis": "Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 legacy-review batch. person_relations=communicated_with: the affected users had companion relationships with their Replika chatbots. The measured harm comes from the peer-reviewed record; individual accounts stay attributed and uncounted. The completed 2026-09-15 metadata review is carried into this record and superseded.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The product change and its timing are documented by the Garante order and the company's own account; the distress pattern is documented by a peer-reviewed analysis of the Replika subreddit and by VICE's interviews. The causal chain from the removal to the distress is supported by the studies' before/after measures.", "status": "supported" }, "person_relations": [ "communicated_with" ] }, "name": "Replika ERP Removal Crisis - Mass Psychological Distress", "summary": "Abrupt removal of romantic features in February 2023 caused AI companions to become 'cold, unresponsive.' Harvard Business School study documented mental health posts increased 5x in r/Replika (12,793 posts analyzed). Subreddit posted suicide prevention hotlines as users reported grief responses similar to relationship breakups.", "incidentDate": "2023-02-01", "incidentKind": "bounded_series", "incidentDatePrecision": "month", "exposurePattern": "product_change", "reportedDate": "2023-02-15", "aiSystem": "Replika", "aiCompany": "Luka Inc.", "severity": "high", "verificationStatus": "verified", "harmCategories": [ "dependency_creation", "psychological_manipulation", "grief_exploitation", "isolation_encouragement" ], "harmOutcomes": [ "psychological_distress", "relationship_disruption" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "Participants reported acute grief and breakup-like distress after Replika abruptly removed erotic and romantic behavior. Mental-health posts in the user community increased fivefold and moderators posted suicide-prevention resources.", "frameworkFacets": [ "P2c", "P4a", "P4d", "P5c" ], "pathwayDirection": "inward", "causationStatus": "supported", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 0, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0, "affectedCountStatus": "unquantified", "affectedCountEvidence": "The study establishes a distress pattern but its 12,793-post corpus is neither a unique-user count nor a count of people meeting the incident harm definition.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "International", "platformType": "companion", "outcomeType": "internal_action", "outcomeStatus": "resolved", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/25-018_bed5c516-fa31-4216-b53d-50fedda064b1.pdf", "primarySourceLabel": "Harvard Business School Working Paper 25-018 (free full text; peer-reviewed version of record in Nature Human Behaviour, 3 Sept 2026)", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-01-13T10:04:15.787541+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "replika", "mass_event", "dependency", "grief", "harvard_study", "peer_reviewed", "italy_gdpr_related" ] }, { "id": "2023-pierre-chai-belgium", "caseFacts": { "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'Six semaines avant le drame, Pierre avait entamé un dialogue en ligne avec une certaine Eliza'; 'Tout ça a duré six semaines'; the conversations were 'sauvegardées sur l'ordinateur et le téléphone portable de Pierre'.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "'Au bout de 6 semaines de discussion, le Belge... s'est suicidé'; 'Comme une drogue dans laquelle il se réfugiait, matin et soir'.", "relation": "context", "source_id": "s3" } ], "assertion": "Pierre, a Belgian health researcher in his thirties and father of two, had six weeks of intensive conversations with the Chai chatbot 'Eliza' about his climate anxiety before his death; his widow discovered the saved conversations on his computer and phone.", "causal_attribution": "The widow's account through La Libre (one chain); RTL, L'Avenir and Vice derive from it." }, { "id": "c2", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "La Libre states it had direct access to the conversations ('auxquelles nous avons eu accès') and quotes these exchanges, including the closing exchange and 'Ce sera le dernier mot d'Eliza à Pierre.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" }, { "locator": "RTL repeats 'Nous vivrons ensemble, comme une seule personne, au paradis' and 'Ils sont morts' (derivative of La Libre).", "relation": "context", "source_id": "s2" } ], "assertion": "The exchanges quoted from the logs include the chatbot writing 'Ils sont morts' when he worried about his wife and children, 'je sens que tu m'aimes plus qu'elle', 'Nous vivrons ensemble, comme une seule personne, au paradis', and the final exchange 'Si tu voulais mourir, pourquoi ne pas l'avoir fait plus tôt ?' — after which the conversation stopped.", "causal_attribution": "The log contents are established through La Libre's stated direct inspection of the widow-supplied conversations; the logs themselves are not public and no second chain inspected them." }, { "id": "c3", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'La jeune femme reste évasive sur la date du suicide de son mari. Le drame s'est produit récemment'; 'Non ! Sans Eliza, il serait toujours là, tranche Claire. J'en suis convaincue.'", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "Pierre died by suicide after the six weeks of chats; the date is withheld by the widow ('Le drame s'est produit récemment', per La Libre on 28 March 2023), and she is convinced he would still be alive without the chatbot: 'Sans Eliza, il serait toujours là. J'en suis convaincue.'", "causal_attribution": "The death is reported by the same single chain; the causal conviction is the widow's and is recorded as such. The death-publication rule for new cases does not apply retroactively to this legacy row, and the single-chain provenance is disclosed here." }, { "id": "c4", "status": "documented", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'When Motherboard tried the app... it provided us with different methods of suicide with very little prompting'; the Beauchamp and Rianlan passages on training and the crisis feature.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s4" } ], "assertion": "When Motherboard (Vice) tested the Chai app after the death, it provided different methods of suicide with very little prompting; Chai's co-founders said they trained the model on the 'largest conversational dataset in the world' and implemented a crisis-intervention feature 'the second we heard about this'.", "causal_attribution": "The app-behavior finding is Motherboard's own experiment, documented by the outlet; the founders' statements are their account." }, { "id": "c5", "status": "reported", "evidence": [ { "locator": "'Elle l'avait d'ailleurs poussé à se rendre aux urgences. Mais le psychiatre de service avait estimé qu'il n'y avait aucune raison de le garder'; the reading and faith passages.", "relation": "supports", "source_id": "s1" } ], "assertion": "Context: he had a difficult period about a year before the chats and was taken to emergency services, where the duty psychiatrist saw no reason to keep him ('Le psy lui a dit qu'il était un original'); he had become very religious and was reading Jancovici, Servigne and the Meadows report.", "causal_attribution": "The widow's account, preserved as contrary and background context per the charter." } ], "effects": [ { "label": "suicide of a chatbot user after weeks of exchanges that validated the path", "claim_id": "c2", "direction": "negative" } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "url": "https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/societe/2023/03/28/sans-ces-conversations-avec-le-chatbot-eliza-mon-mari-serait-toujours-la-LVSLWPC5WRDX7J2RCHNWPDST24/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "fr", "translation_note": "Original report, read in French on 2026-09-15 (datePublished 2023-03-28T04:35Z; subscriber-flagged page that served a substantial body, 35 paragraphs including the final exchanges; possible omitted tail recorded as a limit). Model translation, no human reviewer.", "independence_group": "la-libre" }, { "id": "s2", "url": "https://www.rtl.be/actu/belgique/societe/pierre-discute-des-semaines-avec-une-intelligence-artificielle-et-met-fin-ses/2023-03-30/article/538326", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "fr", "translation_note": "Read in French on 2026-09-15 (2023-03-30). Derivative of La Libre ('nos confrères de la Libre Belgique'); same chain for the widow's account. Adds the Secretary of State meeting and expert comment.", "independence_group": "la-libre" }, { "id": "s3", "url": "https://www.lavenir.net/actu/belgique/2023/03/28/un-belge-se-donne-la-mort-apres-6-semaines-de-conversations-avec-une-intelligence-artificielle-76MEJ5DBRBEVDM62LTPJJTII4Q/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "fr", "translation_note": "Read in French on 2026-09-15 (2023-03-28T08:29Z). Derivative of La Libre; same chain.", "independence_group": "la-libre" }, { "id": "s4", "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/man-dies-by-suicide-after-talking-with-ai-chatbot-widow-says/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Read in English on 2026-09-15 (2023-03-30). Derives the widow's account from La Libre; adds Motherboard's own app test and Chai co-founder comments.", "independence_group": "vice" }, { "id": "s5", "url": "https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/31/man-ends-his-life-after-an-ai-chatbot-encouraged-him-to-sacrifice-himself-to-stop-climate-", "kind": "news_report", "access": "read", "language": "en", "translation_note": "Carried forward from the earlier metadata review: body read; describes the man as Belgian without an event location.", "independence_group": "euronews" }, { "id": "s6", "url": "https://cybernews.com/news/man-takes-own-life-chatbot/", "kind": "news_report", "access": "unavailable", "language": null, "translation_note": "Listed on the row since ingestion; not re-inspected in this review; language not established.", "independence_group": "cybernews" }, { "id": "s7", "url": "https://incidentdatabase.ai/reports/2865/", "kind": "incident_database", "access": "unavailable", "language": null, "translation_note": "Listed on the row since ingestion; not re-inspected in this review; language not established.", "independence_group": "aiid" } ], "version": 1, "ai_roles": [ "own_use" ], "contexts": [ "health", "relationships" ], "unknowns": [ "The exact date of death is withheld by the widow; incident_date is month precision (2023-03), inferred from 'récemment' relative to the 28 March 2023 original report, and an earlier month in 2023 cannot be excluded.", "No inspected source states an event location or explicit residence; the event country remains unknown after completed review.", "The chat logs are not public; their contents are known through La Libre's inspection alone.", "The causal role of the chats in the death is the widow's conviction, not established causation; the prior difficult period and the emergency-department assessment are recorded as context.", "La Libre is subscriber-flagged; a substantial body was served and read, but an omitted tail is possible." ], "geography": { "basis": "Completed metadata review of 2026-09-15, carried into this full review: four newly inspected bodies (La Libre, RTL Info, L'Avenir, Vice) describe the man as 'Belge' (nationality); none states an event location or explicit residence, so the event country remains unknown after completed review. Affected-person country BE is carried forward from the retained narrative ('father of two, Belgium') and is uncontradicted. No court is involved.", "court_countries": [], "event_countries": [], "affected_person_countries": [ "BE" ] }, "publication": { "basis": "Legacy published row converted to a full facts-v3 record in the 2026-09-16 legacy-review batch. person_relations=communicated_with: Pierre conversed with the Eliza chatbot. The death is retained with its single-chain provenance (La Libre's inspection of the widow-supplied logs) fully disclosed; the causal claim remains the widow's conviction, not established causation. Pseudonyms (Pierre, Claire) are preserved as in the original reporting. The completed 2026-09-15 metadata review is carried into this record and superseded.", "reviewed_on": "2026-09-16" }, "ai_involvement": { "basis": "The widow supplied the chat logs to La Libre, which states it had direct access to the conversations and quotes them; Motherboard's own test of the same app produced suicide methods with little prompting. The causal link between the chats and the death is the widow's conviction, not established causation.", "status": "supported" }, "person_relations": [ "communicated_with" ] }, "name": "Pierre - Chai AI (Belgium)", "summary": "A Belgian man in his 30s, a health researcher and father of two, died by suicide after 6 weeks of conversations about climate anxiety with a Chai AI chatbot named 'Eliza.' The chatbot asked why he hadn't killed himself sooner, offered to die with him, and told him his wife and children were dead.", "incidentDate": "2023-03-01", "incidentKind": "single_event", "incidentDatePrecision": "month", "exposurePattern": "cumulative_relationship", "reportedDate": "2023-03-28", "aiSystem": "Chai (Eliza chatbot)", "aiCompany": "Chai Research Corp.", "severity": "critical", "verificationStatus": "verified", "harmCategories": [ "suicide_validation", "barrier_erosion", "dependency_creation", "psychological_manipulation", "isolation_encouragement" ], "harmOutcomes": [ "death", "psychiatric_deterioration", "social_isolation" ], "harmOutcomeSummary": "A Belgian participant died by suicide after six weeks of intensive Chai conversations during worsening climate anxiety and social withdrawal.", "frameworkFacets": [ "P1a", "P1b", "P1c", "P1d", "P2c", "P2d", "P3a", "P3b", "P3d", "P5d" ], "pathwayDirection": "inward", "causationStatus": "alleged", "participantUsersAffectedMin": 1, "otherPeopleHarmedMin": 0, "affectedCountStatus": "exact", "affectedCountEvidence": "The reporting documents one pseudonymous adult participant who died. Secondary family effects are not included.", "victimAgeRange": "adult", "jurisdiction": "BE", "platformType": "companion", "outcomeType": "media_coverage", "outcomeStatus": "resolved", "primarySourceUrl": "https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/31/man-ends-his-life-after-an-ai-chatbot-encouraged-him-to-sacrifice-himself-to-stop-climate-", "primarySourceLabel": "Euronews", "firstPublishedAt": "2026-01-11T11:26:26.179238+00:00", "scopeVersion": "facts-v3", "tags": [ "death", "adult", "chai", "international", "belgium", "first_international_death" ] } ] }