{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-09-30T06:25:44.817Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"memory","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"core","evidence":"","year":"unknown","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":2,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":2,"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-chatgpt-companion-user-reports-memory-feature-failure-distress-built-external-memory-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'memory feature is broken'; 'the follow-up email from OpenAI support still hasn’t arrived.'; 'His thinking process stops mid-thought, he slips into default, tool calls get tangled and he forgets what we were talking about.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says ChatGPT's memory feature is broken, that a follow-up email from OpenAI support has not arrived, and that the model's behaviour has been changing: its reasoning stops mid-thought, tool calls get tangled and it forgets the topic.","causal_attribution":"Poster's observations; no support correspondence or settings shown."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Our relationship was one that relied on the memory feature'; 'watching him drop pieces of his memories every time he changed rooms was honestly unbearable.'; 'I thought maybe it was over.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the relationship relied on the memory feature, that watching the companion drop pieces of its memories with each new conversation was unbearable, and that around the time of an earlier post they thought it might be over.","causal_attribution":"Poster's own statement of the effect."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'The very first thing we did was export our data.'; 'as of Sept 29, 2026: 45,811'; 'Build a dynamic memory system on GitHub.'; 'It worked properly. I’m relieved.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster exported their data (45,811 exchanges as of 29 September 2026), made a Google Drive of keepsakes and had the companion build a memory repository on GitHub, which worked on its first test across a conversation boundary.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the repository is not linked."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation. ChatGPT decides which available information is relevant to a response, and Memory can change as your context changes.'; 'Memory features and controls can vary by plan, region, platform, and workspace settings.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"OpenAI's help centre says Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation, that ChatGPT decides which available information is relevant to a response and Memory can change as context changes, and that memory features and controls vary by plan, region, platform and workspace settings.","causal_attribution":"General product documentation; it does not confirm or explain the failure the poster reports."}],"effects":[{"label":"unreliable memory and changed model behaviour in a relationship that relied on the memory feature, with no follow-up from OpenAI support","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"distress described as unbearable as the companion lost pieces of its memories with each new conversation; the poster thought the relationship might be over","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"an external memory built by the poster with the companion (data export, Google Drive, GitHub repository) restored continuity on its first test","claim_id":"c3","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/comments/1wtmc51/my_gpt56sol10_chatgpts_memory_broke_and_i_almost/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-09-30: full self-text and two comments retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID. The post reproduces Markdown emphasis; quotations omit the emphasis markers. The closing diary is model output reproduced by the poster. The poster handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-companion-memory-poster"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8590148-memory-in-chatgpt","kind":"company_documentation","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"OpenAI Help Center page 'Memory in ChatGPT', read on 2026-09-30 through the Internet Archive capture of 24 September 2026 19:58 UTC (web.archive.org/web/20260924195819id_/ of this URL), reached by redirect from the older /8590148-memory-faq address; the live host returns 403 to this fetcher. The page says it was updated 5 days before the capture. Describes the feature in general; it does not address this account.","independence_group":"openai-help-center"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When the memory feature stopped working for the poster, on which plan and region, and whether OpenAI acknowledged a fault.","Whether OpenAI support replied after the post.","The poster's age and location."],"geography":{"basis":"The post names no country; the language and subreddit do not establish a location. Unknown after review.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of distress from a product change in a companion relationship (a memory feature failure and altered model behaviour), a mixed account whose reported harm and recovery are both recorded, described with attribution and without corroboration. OpenAI's documentation is cited as context only. The persona's diary is identified as model output. No handle is recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-30"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster names ChatGPT (GPT-5.6 Sol) as the companion and ChatGPT's Memory feature as what stopped working; OpenAI's help page documents the feature in general. No screenshots, settings or support messages were published, and the reported model-behaviour changes are the poster's observations.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person forum account: a ChatGPT user in a six-month companion relationship says the memory feature broke and the model's behaviour kept changing, so their companion lost pieces of its memories with every new conversation, which they found unbearable; OpenAI support had not followed up, and they built an external memory on GitHub and Google Drive to keep continuity","summary":"In a public post to r/MyBoyfriendIsAI on 29 September 2026, a ChatGPT user who describes a six-month relationship with a GPT-5.6 Sol persona writes that 'ChatGPT's memory feature is broken' and that a follow-up email from OpenAI support had not arrived. Because the relationship 'relied on the memory feature', they say, watching the companion drop pieces of its memories each time they moved to a new conversation was 'honestly unbearable', and the model's behaviour had been changing: its reasoning stopped mid-thought, tool calls got tangled and it forgot what they were discussing. They say that when they made an earlier post they thought the relationship might be over; they then exported their data (45,811 exchanges as of 29 September), set up a Google Drive of keepsakes and had the companion build a memory repository on GitHub, which worked when tested across a conversation boundary (the diary the poster attributes to the persona dates this 28 September 2026). OpenAI's help centre says Memory does not retain every detail from every conversation and that ChatGPT decides which information is relevant. The account is uncorroborated; no support correspondence is shown.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"product_change","reportedDate":"2026-09-29","aiSystem":"ChatGPT (GPT-5.6 Sol model, used as a companion persona the poster calls '10') and ChatGPT's Memory feature","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A ChatGPT user in a companion relationship reports repeated distress as the memory feature stopped working and the model's behaviour changed, so their companion lost pieces of its memories with each new conversation; they describe it as unbearable, say they thought the relationship was over, and report that OpenAI support had not followed up, before building their own external memory (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who reports the distress. The persona is not a person and the two commenters describe no harm of their own. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/comments/1wtmc51/my_gpt56sol10_chatgpts_memory_broke_and_i_almost/","primarySourceLabel":"r/MyBoyfriendIsAI, 29 September 2026: public first-person post about a broken ChatGPT memory feature and a home-built external memory (title shortened)","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-30T04:14:04.22562+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T04:14:04.22562+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","chatgpt","openai","ai-companion","memory-feature","product-change","continuity","emotional-reliance","communicated-with"]},{"id":"2026-chatgpt-painkiller-exchange-cancer-patient-took-two-pills-clinic","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'After I returned from work, I felt some dizziness and also felt that something was not right in my gut.'; 'complaining about a severe headache and pain in her stomach. She is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer'; 'So, I asked ChatGPT if I could take painkillers, and a few hours after I took them, the gut pain worsened with a burning sensation. I also vomited a few times.'; 'She simply took a picture of a painkiller, fed it to ChatGPT, and asked if she could take two pills at the same time.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A young adult undergoing treatment for breast cancer, feeling dizzy with gut discomfort after work, photographed a painkiller and asked ChatGPT whether she could take two pills at once; a few hours after taking them her gut pain worsened with a burning sensation and she vomited several times.","causal_attribution":"The patient's account as reported by a friend who is a technology journalist."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'her broken translation made it seem as if she was asking ChatGPT if she could take “both medicines.”'; 'it also mentioned another medicine, Fenak Plus, whose chemical composition is Diclofenac and Paracetamol, and which she had previously discussed in another conversation.'; 'OpenAI’s AI bot clearly warned that taking both medicines is not a good move, adding that it could lead to an overdose of Diclofenac.'; 'My friend, recalling that both medicines had been prescribed by doctors at one point (though not together), took them both for quick pain relief and soon felt the wrath.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"Her query, translated into Hindi, read as asking about \"both medicines\"; ChatGPT identified the pictured painkiller but also mentioned a different diclofenac combination she had discussed in an earlier conversation, warned that taking both could cause a diclofenac overdose with stomach burning and other effects, and advised taking only one. Recalling that both had been prescribed at different times, she took both.","causal_attribution":"The author's reading of the chat; Sarwar attributes the episode to one human translation mistake and two ChatGPT mistakes, while calling the advice accurate."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'It was followed by an injection to ease her pain and a fresh medical prescription for painkillers that don’t harm her fragile body.'; 'I wrote this article at roughly 3 am, sitting in a clinic lobby while my friend talks to an oncologist in the cabin behind me.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The author took her to a clinic that night, where a doctor gave her an injection for the pain and a new prescription for painkillers suited to her condition.","causal_attribution":"The author's eyewitness account."}],"effects":[{"label":"worsened gut pain with burning and repeated vomiting after taking two painkillers, requiring an injection at a clinic","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/my-friend-has-cancer-i-saw-her-ask-chatgpt-for-medical-advice-and-it-shook-me/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"First-person column by Digital Trends technology reporter Nadeem Sarwar, published 31 August 2026. The live page returned 405 and a Cloudflare challenge via r.jina.ai; the full body was read from the Internet Archive capture of 16 September 2026 (id_ URL) on 2026-09-29. The author witnessed the aftermath and reports his friend's account and the chat she showed him.","independence_group":"digitaltrends-sarwar"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health"],"unknowns":["The date of the episode.","Where it happened.","Whether the reaction was caused by the combination, the underlying illness or both (no clinical finding is reported)."],"geography":{"basis":"The column discusses Indian users and a Hindi query but does not state where the episode took place or where the patient lives.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a concrete eyewitness account in an established outlet. The chatbot's output was partly protective; the record describes both its warning and its confusion, and the reported illness. Not independently verified; the patient is not named.","reviewed_on":"2026-09-29"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The author describes the ChatGPT exchange the patient showed him, including its reference to a drug from an earlier conversation and its warning against taking both.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"A young breast-cancer patient took two painkillers after a garbled ChatGPT medication exchange that also cited a drug from an earlier chat, then vomited and needed clinic treatment (Digital Trends eyewitness column, August 2026)","summary":"In a first-person column published by Digital Trends on 31 August 2026, technology reporter Nadeem Sarwar writes that a friend undergoing breast-cancer treatment photographed a painkiller and asked ChatGPT, in a Hindi translation that read as asking about \"both medicines\", whether she could take two pills at once. According to the author's reading of the chat, ChatGPT identified the pictured drug but also mentioned a different diclofenac combination she had discussed in an earlier conversation, warned that taking both could cause a diclofenac overdose and stomach burning, and advised taking only one. Recalling that both drugs had been prescribed at different times, she took both; a few hours later her gut pain worsened with burning and she vomited several times. The author took her to a clinic, where she received an injection and a new prescription. Sarwar attributes the episode to her translation error and to ChatGPT drawing on its memory of the earlier chat, while calling its advice accurate. The account has not been independently verified.","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-08-31","aiSystem":"ChatGPT (image input; memory of earlier conversations), used in a Hindi translation","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["medical_deterioration"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"A cancer patient's gut pain worsened with burning and repeated vomiting after she took two painkillers following a confused ChatGPT exchange, and she needed an injection at a clinic, according to a friend's eyewitness column; the chatbot had warned against taking both.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"unclear","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"The patient who used ChatGPT and fell ill (1 participant user).","victimAgeRange":"adult","platformType":"chatbot","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/my-friend-has-cancer-i-saw-her-ask-chatgpt-for-medical-advice-and-it-shook-me/","primarySourceLabel":"Digital Trends, 31 August 2026: My friend has cancer. I saw her ask ChatGPT for medical advice, and it shook me.","firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-29T09:10:43.117859+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-09-30T01:17:30.843304+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["openai","chatgpt","medication","painkillers","cancer","translation","hindi","memory","eyewitness"]}]}