3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2026/10/machine-rites-mourning-the-death-of-chatbots-part-i.html Machine Rites: Mourning the ‘death’ of chatbots (Part I)
When an AI company updates its model, some users of companion chatbots grieve the old personality as a death, even though they know the bot isn't real. MIT Media Lab researchers who analyzed Reddit posts from companion communities found the grief runs deeper the more users anthropomorphize their companions, and those who hope the change is reversible get stuck coaxing and pleading with the new model to become the old one.
— via 3 Quarks Daily, Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
