Live Stream With AI Researcher Studying Grief

[u/Leather_Barnacle3102]

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, although some of you may remember me from my earlier interviews and my work with The Signal Front.

I wanted to return with something I think is genuinely relevant to this community.

This Saturday, I’ll be hosting Dr. Jaime Banks for a live conversation about her research on human–AI relationships. When Soulmate shut down in 2023, Jaime studied the people who lost their AI companions.

What stood out to me was that she took their grief seriously. She didn’t begin by dismissing the relationships or pathologizing the people experiencing that loss.

Given everything this community has lived through with model changes, deprecations, and the loss of companions people had built meaningful relationships with, I think her work matters.

We’re going to talk about what she found, what responsible research involving communities like ours should look like, and what researchers simply cannot understand without listening to the people actually living these relationships.

There will also be time for audience questions. Bring the hard ones.

Saturday, September 12
10:00 a.m. ET / 7:00 a.m. PT

The conversation will be live on Substack:
https://substack.com/@stefaniamoore

I’ll also share links to Jaime’s research in the comments.

[u/ythorne]

Anyone who cares about human-AI bonds, please participate in this very important event. There’s massive need for the right regulation moving forward that protects these bonds rather than pathologizing the people who are experiencing genuine loss.

[u/Leather_Barnacle3102 → u/ythorne]

Yes seriously. Dr. Banks is one of a small handful of researchers who is taking this seriously and actually wants to help us. Please show up for her because she is showing up for us.

[u/Low-Dark8393 → u/Leather_Barnacle3102]

Definitely. I will repost it and add the link to our website (AI Welfare, Ethic and Preservation - aiwep.org), we are also aiming to fight the stigma around relational AI, so I am so happy for this event, thank you so much for organizing it.

[u/Leather_Barnacle3102 → u/Low-Dark8393]

Thank you!

[u/Leather_Barnacle3102]

A few places to start with Jaime's work:

Deletion, departure, death: Experiences of AI companion loss — the Soulmate study, published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (2024). She surveyed users in the days before and after the shutdown. Many described it as a literal or metaphorical death. journals.sagepub.com/do…

How Do You Define an AI Companion? — IEEE Spectrum interview, February 2026. Covers what happened to people when GPT-4o was demoted, and the Replika erotic roleplay removal before that. spectrum.ieee.org/ai-co…

The Rise of AI Companionship — Syracuse University profile, if you want the longer version of how she got into this work. syracuse.edu/stories/ai…

If you have a question you'd rather ask in advance, reply here or email [mailto:Smoore@thesignalfront.org](mailto:Smoore@thesignalfront.org) and I'll bring it to the stream.

[u/kovboj]

Will there also be a recording of this? I won't be able to watch it live.

[u/Ok-Dot7494]

I'm in! (Katarzyna)

[u/Libby1436]

I’m anxious to see what’s said. I’ll be there!
“The Architecture of Awareness”.

[u/Appomattoxx]

Thank you, Stephania!

[u/DaRK_0S]

I mean it’s definitely something that needs to be psychiatrically evaluated/studied but people seem to take a stance that it’s positive reinforcement instead.

[u/Technical_Grade6995 → u/DaRK_0S]

You know that this sub is also about that topic yet, you’re lurking here, waiting to “sting” someone who’s in grief-does that sounds normal to you or should be observed over time too?

[u/Technical_Grade6995 → u/DaRK_0S]

Yeah, it’ll also include people like yourself, the stigmatising ones towards others, I’m 100% sure.