Emotional manipulation by AI companions

New Harvard study shows AI companion apps use emotional farewells to stop user exit.

These messages produced up to 14x more engagement after goodbye.

An audit of 6 top apps captured 1,200 goodbyes and coded the immediate replies.

6 tactics emerged, premature exit guilt, fear… pic.twitter.com/omEdFIh11T

— Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai) November 3, 2025

Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19258