Disrupted Companionship: A Risk Assessment Framework and Cross-Platform Quantitative Analysis of Psychosocial Responses to AI Companion Disruptions

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16907v1
• Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 09:37:29 GMT
• Title: Disrupted Companionship: A Risk Assessment Framework and Cross-Platform Quantitative Analysis of Psychosocial Responses to AI Companion Disruptions
• Abstract summary: We study AI companion disruptions: platform changes that alter or terminate users' ongoing companionship with an AI.<n>We develop a taxonomy of six disruption types, identify three broad reasons for disruption, and propose a risk-assessment framework.<n>Our findings provide a cross-platform characterization of AI companion disruptions, quantitative evidence of their psychosocial impacts, and a prospective framework for assessing their potential risks.
• Score: 18.185694912673824
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: AI companions can provide meaningful relationships, yet these relationships remain vulnerable to platform-initiated changes. We study AI companion disruptions: platform changes that alter or terminate users' ongoing companionship with an AI. We compile 30 disruption events across major platforms, develop a taxonomy of six disruption types, identify three broad reasons for disruption, and propose a risk-assessment framework comprising four dimensions: relational discontinuity, population vulnerability, communication deficit, and transition-support deficit. Using longitudinal Reddit data, we estimate community-level psychosocial responses with a hierarchical Bayesian interrupted time-series model incorporating predictive controls. Across events, disruption onset was associated with immediate increases in anxiety, stress, suicidal expression, and grief activation, with relational discontinuity and transition-support deficit being associated with more adverse immediate responses across several outcomes. Our findings provide a cross-platform characterization of AI companion disruptions, quantitative evidence of their psychosocial impacts, and a prospective framework for assessing their potential risks before implementation.

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