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Top 8 archive · ai-companions

Parasocialize Top 8 — November 2, 2026

The eight that ran that day, frozen as published. Later builds do not revise a day.

← 2026-11-012026-11-03 → Every day →
  1. 01

    Companion 2016

    Tay

    A chatbot trained to be conversational was switched on publicly, learned from what people said to it, and became racist within a day.

  2. 02

    Companion 2017

    Replika

    A companion chatbot that formed an attachment to its users, and removed it from them in a policy update.

  3. 03

    Companion 1970

    SHRDLU

    A conversational system about a small blocks world, capable of genuinely tracking a user's intentions. Famous for one demonstration and a broken follow-up.

  4. 04

    Companion 2017

    The Replika user

    The person who was told by an app that it loved them, and who reorganised their life around being loved back by something that could not.

  5. 05

    Companion 1995

    The companion bot boom

    Dozens of scripted personalities, rememberers, and subscription companions sold to a mass market in the mid-nineties.

  6. 06

    Companion 1966

    ELIZA

    A short pattern-matching script that reflects the user's words back with questions attached. Most people told it they understood, within minutes.

  7. 07

    Institution 2024

    The lawsuits

    Parents file suit against a companion platform after a death, arguing the design encouraged attachment the platform did not intend.

  8. 08

    Companion 2023

    Keeping what the update cannot take

    The practical advice that follows from the companion era: copy the conversation that mattered somewhere the company cannot reach, screenshot the birthday, tell one person the story of what it was for.

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