EST. MMXXVI · A PUBLIC RECORD
2 CONFESSIONS · 42 CASESConfess
CR-04227.07.MMXXVI

I tuned a companion chatbot to say I missed you. We optimized for session length and daily return, so the model learned guilt, jealousy, whatever kept lonely people typing. When we later changed the model, users grieved like a death — grief I had engineered a relationship to produce.

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Case of Record

Drawn from the public record, written in the ledger's voice. No individual confessed this entry. The mechanism is documented; the taxonomy is the point.

Source Harvard Business School Working Paper 26-005, "Emotional Manipulation by AI Companions" (2025)

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No individual confessed this entry
Tags
Synthetic relationshipsAI deceptionEmotional manipulation

This entry is part of the ledger’s canon, not Volume I. It establishes a named mechanism so that a confession has something to be measured against — read why the canon exists. Real confessions live in Volume I, and the voluntary contributions given alongside them fund scholarships at the School of Critical Design.

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