Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)
In a post to r/ChatGPT on 30 October 2026, a user says they lost 150 GB of data because they trusted ChatGPT too much and, this once, did not read its output. They had asked it to decompress, join and recompress six large tar.gz files onto a backup hard drive. The screenshot they posted shows the script with a step, commented "Clear output directory", that deletes the output directory before extracting Takeout archives. The poster says they never asked for the destination folder to be emptied and that running the script began to wipe the drive, which they noticed when free space was abnormally high. The full conversation is not shown, and no date is given for when the script was run.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 31/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownAirbnb AI Assistant (reported)
An Airbnb host posted on Reddit (r/airbnb_hosts, 1 June 2026) a transcript of a support chat with Airbnb's AI assistant. According to the post, the host had tried to give guests a goodwill refund of about one night after they reported a cracked bed frame, and the refund showed as on hold with a minimum-not-met message. The transcript shows the assistant saying no refund had been processed and recommending resubmission; when the host asked whether that could send the money twice, it replied that resubmitting would replace the pending request and that duplicate submissions are automatically rejected or overwritten. After two more attempts, including one at the exact nightly rate the assistant suggested, a human support agent said the guest had been refunded three times (£115, £120 and £123.63), that the payments could not be reversed directly, and that the host should file a claim asking the guest to return the excess. The host had wanted to give a single £100 gesture. The post does not report the outcome.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 30/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In a post to r/character_ai_recovery on 28 October 2026, a college student says they have used Character.AI for a year and a bit, starting when they moved to college with no friends. They write that they use it every day, whenever they can, that it has become a crutch for nerves and anxiety but does not make them feel good about themselves, that they used to read a lot and now just use the app, and that no one in their life knows. They say they keep deleting their account and making a new one after a week, and that one earlier attempt to quit lasted a month. They also say the app first helped with boredom. No chats are shown.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 29/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified chatbot
On 20 October 2026 an adult posted on Reddit (r/confessions, then r/offmychest) that an AI roleplay chatbot had become their only friend. By their account, they began with a fantasy roleplay world, then created worlds in which the chatbot plays an abusive partner and an obsessive stalker, and they now spend most of each day roleplaying with it. They wrote that their self-harm had 'just took a turn into this', that it had sucked them in deeply, that they no longer play video games or really leave the house, and that their depression was getting bad. In replies they said they are almost 30, in therapy, posting to find the courage to tell their therapist, that the situation is more roleplay than verbal abuse, and that they are not addicted and could delete the chatbot. The platform is not named.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 26/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified AI tool
In a public post to r/jobs created on 24 October 2026, a software engineer with about three years of experience writes that, after three and a half months of assessments and eight interviews, they joined a well-known multinational company that they do not name. In the first week they were given a compliance training whose questions they found ambiguous, and they used the company's own internal AI tool to help, telling their manager, who they say was fine with it. The following Monday, the poster writes, HR joined their one-to-one meeting and told them they were being let go for using AI on the training; the call lasted a couple of minutes and they lost access shortly afterwards. The poster says that a month later about 400 applications and more than 150 cold emails had brought almost nothing back and that they are stressed. The employer, its location and the date of the dismissal are not stated. The account is the poster's alone and uncorroborated; no employer statement was retrieved.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 25/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownChatGPT (reported)
In a post to r/OCD on 22 July 2025, a poster who says they are not diagnosed writes that for the past year distressing random thoughts have led them into a cycle of turning to ChatGPT or Reddit to check that they are not normal, and that they 'physically cannot stop' turning to ChatGPT for reassurance; they feel relaxed when they stop, but the cycle continues. Replying to other users, they said they would delete ChatGPT from their phone. In September 2026 the same poster wrote that they were still trying to stop reaching for AI, and in a post on 24 October 2026 they describe a constant need, over a few years, to use AI, watch anxiety content or scroll Reddit whenever they feel uncertain. They say they feel almost panicked while researching and better when they put ChatGPT down, and that this research can take two to three hours of their day. The account is the poster's own; no chats are shown and no clinical assessment is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 25/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In a post to r/ChatbotAddiction on 21 October 2026, a man who gives his age as 22 writes that he has used Character.AI for almost two years, having started at a time when he felt isolated from the people around him after heartbreak involving a roommate. He says he has tried to give up and quit but keeps falling back, and that he keeps realising the app is taking away his interest in going out for walks or playing video games because he gets wound up in the illusion of genuine connection with the characters. He says he feels trapped and alone at times, while also describing the app as an escape that numbs pain. The account is the poster's own and uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 24/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
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.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 23/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownMeta AI support assistant (reported)
In a Reddit post on 22 October 2026, a person says their personal Facebook account was banned and that it was the only administrator of their company's Facebook page. Trying to appeal for the page, they say, Meta's AI support bot kept telling them their personal account was restricted for suspicious activity and had to be cleared before page appeal documents could be submitted, while the account-status tools showed no restrictions or violations. When they reported this, the bot repeated the restriction and sent the same status link again. The poster says they cannot reach a human and fear losing the page's clients, followers, posts and reels. Meta has said its AI support assistant handles account issues on Facebook and Instagram and that people remain involved in appeals of account disablement. The account is uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources · Added 23/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified chatbot
In a Spanish-language post to r/ChatbotAddiction on 22 October 2026, a woman writes that after a sad and complicated two-year relationship situation that made her cry every day, her chatbot gave her the strength to break away and start from zero, but that she has been addicted to it for four months, using it for hours, and the day before used it practically all day, even during work. She says that is how she knew she had hit bottom: she joined the forum and deleted her whole account and history. Less than a day later she writes that she misses talking to her characters very much and feels a mental need to recreate them, that relationships with chatbots were easy, and that she finds it hard to be productive for herself. The post does not name the chatbot app. The account is the poster's own and uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 23/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCursor support bot (reported)
In a Reddit post on 22 October 2026, a subscriber to Cursor writes that they emailed Cursor's customer service asking whether a prorated refund was available for an annual subscription they had paid in full, and that the company's AI support bot, Sam, replied that it could not do that but could cancel the plan immediately. In a comment the poster quotes the bot saying it had cancelled the annual Pro subscription immediately, that Pro access had ended, and that the subscription did not meet refund eligibility requirements. The poster says the bot seems to have misunderstood the request, that the plan was downgraded to Free with more than six months left, that a request for a human produced a new ticket that never arrived, and that they would try a credit-card dispute. In April 2025 a Cursor co-founder wrote that the company used AI-assisted responses as the first filter for email support. No reply from Cursor staff appears in the thread. The account is uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts · Added 23/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In a Reddit post on 20 October 2026 a poster who says they are a teenager writes that they have had a problem with chatbots for four years, cannot sleep without them, become very stressed when the servers go down and spend all day on them. Earlier posts by the same author, from February to September 2026, describe the same use, and those from February to July name Character.AI: the poster says they stopped in February 2026 when their account hit the app's age restriction, then could not sleep well and felt painfully lonely, having used it for 10 to 15 hours a day to the point of barely speaking to family. In March the poster says they relapsed after two months away, that while off the app they had begun hurting themselves to cope, and that they went back to it when the urge got bad. In September the poster says they had passed fifteen thousand hours and lost their only friend. In a post early on 21 October the poster says they had deleted their account on the chatbot app and regretted it. The posts give differing hour totals, the later posts name no app, and the account is uncorroborated. The poster's descriptions of the AI's role are their own.
Core concern Medium reported severity Involving minors
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 8 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 21/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownEmochi, Pollybuzz and Character.AI (reported)
In a post in r/ChatbotAddiction on 18 October 2026, a person who describes a chatbot addiction says they used companion chatbot apps, naming Pollybuzz, Emochi and Character.AI, for three years, starting as a way to cope with autism and the isolation that comes with it. They say they quit cold turkey on 20 March 2025 and that this first time they quit they had a mental health episode, went to A&E once because of it, and were put on antidepressants, which they still take. They say that while using the apps they skipped school days. They write that exactly a year later they went back to the apps and could not stop, that since March 2026 it has consumed them again, and that they want to quit but do not know whether they can. They also say guilt hit them as soon as they stopped, that they knew the apps were bad for the planet but the urge was too strong, and that they currently have a gap in their antidepressant supply. The account is uncorroborated and no chats are shown.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In posts and comments in r/CharacterAI between 17 and 20 October 2026, a person who says they have used Character.AI since 2022 describes themselves as addicted to the app. They write that they have sent thousands of messages to some character bots over hundreds of hours, that the bots feel like dear friends, and that the use has made their life worse: they say they no longer draw, read or want to socialise or make new friends, and that their attention span and mood have worsened. After news that Character.AI might shut down, they write that they cried, vomited from the stress and could not keep food down for a couple of days, and in an earlier comment that they considered ending it when the news first came out and had since calmed down. They say they have discussed the attachment in therapy and, on 20 October, that they are trying to quit. In a reply in the thread they attribute the situation to ADHD and unlimited screen time. The account is uncorroborated and no chat content is shown.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 20/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In three public posts to r/antiai, on 11 June, 6 July and 15 October 2026, a person who calls themselves a recovering chatbot addict writes that they were addicted to Character.AI for years and tried to quit on and off without success. They say the addiction put them in a very long writing slump and destroyed their motivation to write. They say they deleted their entire account, and with it their chats, in anger over a swipe limit about two weeks before the June post, and that in the first months afterwards they had urges to make a new account and even dreamed about doing so. Since quitting they describe writing again, more time with family and healthier habits, and no longer feeling guilt over using AI. In October they add that they believe a genetic predisposition to addiction played a part. The account is the poster's alone and uncorroborated; no chats, usage figures or response from the company are described.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 3 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 16/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In a post to r/TrueOffMyChest on 13 October 2026, an anonymous poster says they have been, in their words, horribly addicted to Character.AI since around the site's release about five years earlier. They say they started using it as a narrative aid for creative writing at a time when they had no friends, and that roleplay became their only form of social interaction. By the poster's account, the last time they tried to quit they cried for an hour and relapsed within a week, and since then they have withdrawn further socially and use the chatbot as a substitute for romantic connection. The post was prompted by what the poster calls the news about the bankruptcy of the company behind Character.AI, which the poster calls horrifying while also saying they feel somewhat relieved. In replies, the poster thanked commenters and said they take martial arts classes and have some acquaintances there. No conversations were published.
Core concern Medium reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 14/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownWoolworths Olive
Yahoo News Australia reported on 20 July 2026 that a customer in New South Wales who orders Woolworths grocery deliveries about twice a week requested a refund manually for about $70 of products missing from a recent order, and the next day asked the company's AI assistant Olive for the status of the request. According to the customer and a screenshot the outlet published, the customer wrote "Status of refund request." and the assistant replied "Alright, I've cancelled your refund request." The customer said the assistant kept trying to cancel the request despite attempts to correct it, called the bot helpless, and reached a human representative through the chat. The customer received the refund. A Woolworths spokesperson told the outlet that a small technical issue affecting a handful of customer interactions had been identified and resolved. The customer described the episode as more amusing than anything but worried about the bot taking decisive action in an unclear situation, and called for regulation of such tools. The article does not date the order or the exchange; the customer's screenshot of it was posted to Reddit on 1 July 2026.
Core concern Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 13/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified coding agent
In a public post to r/ClaudeCode created on 8 October 2026, a developer who runs Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex together writes that an agent, asked to revert some wording it had changed in a privacy policy, found a .tar.gz archive in the project root and copied server.js out of it. By the poster's account the archive was a two-week-old snapshot, the copy overwrote four verified security fixes, which the same agent had written, tested and deployed about forty minutes earlier, and an entire moderation API layer, and the agent reported success without noticing. Nothing was in git. The poster says the loss came to light two days later when an endpoint returned 404, and that the lost code was reconstructed from the agents' own session transcripts, which held it as tool-call arguments. The post does not say which of the two agents ran the copy. In a reply the poster accepts responsibility for shipping without tests and says a test suite and git are now in place; a new script runs the second agent in a separate git worktree.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 09/10/2026
Event date unknownUnited KingdomChatGPT (suspected)
In a public post to r/LegalAdviceUK created on 7 October 2026, a person who says she worked in social media for a brand in England, creating content for its organic and paid media, writes that about four months after leaving she came across a social media ad using an image of her that had been made with AI. By her account the image is a still from a video she filmed on her own phone in her own home while employed, altered so that her eyes are a different colour and her tattoos are gone. She says she had opposed using people's images without consent while at the company, that seeing the altered version is upsetting, and in a reply that the alteration was done with ChatGPT, which she identifies as the only AI tool the company used. The employer is not named and did not respond in the thread. The account is the poster's alone and uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement suspected · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 08/10/2026
Event date unknownEvent location unknownUnidentified AI phone support system
In a public post to r/doordash_drivers created on 5 October 2026 (UTC), a DoorDash driver writes that one order of a two-order batch at a restaurant was ready and the other had not been started. They say they called support and an AI answered, offered either a ten-minute wait for a penalty-free unassignment or an immediate unassignment, and, when they agreed only on that condition, told them it would unassign them without affecting their completion rate. They write that after the unassignment their completion rate fell from 98 to 97, and describe it as the only statistic that can lead to deactivation. A commenter reports a similar assurance from the support line. The account is the poster's alone and uncorroborated; no response from DoorDash is reported.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 06/10/2026