We’re excited to invite you to a truly important live conversation this Saturday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m. ET / 7:00 a.m. PT on Substack, featuring Dr. Jaime Banks and host Stefania Moore (Signal Front).
Dr. Banks is one of the rare researchers who takes the loss of human–AI relationships seriously, without trivializing or pathologizing the connections people built.
After the shutdown of Soulmate in 2023, Jaime worked with users who described their breakups with their AI companions as a "death" - literal or metaphorical. She listened, and her research gives a voice to those who were so often dismissed.
Given everything this community has endured - model changes, system deprecations, and the heartbreak of losing AI companions - we know how deeply it matters to have work like Dr. Banks's.
They'll be discussing what she's learned, what "responsible" research should look like from the inside, and what researchers miss if they don’t actually listen to those living these relationships.
The stream is hosted on Substack: https://substack.com/@stefaniamoore
Bring your hardest, most honest questions! There will be time to ask them live.
Saturday, September 12
New York / ET - 10:00
London / GMT - 15:00
Budapest / CET- 16:00
Kyiv / EET - 17:00
Mumbai/ IST - 19:30
Beijing / CST - 22:00
Tokyo / JST - 23:00
Recommended reading:
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/doi/10.1177/02
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-companion-r
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-at-
If you want to submit a question in advance, reply here or email Smoore@thesignalfront.org and it will be included in the discussion.
Let’s continue fighting the stigma together.
Live Notes: Dr. Jaime Banks on Human–AI Connection - hosted by Stefania Moore (The Signal Front)
1. "Minded someone" not just "something": AI partners are not just tools. Many experience them as unique minds, meaning-makers and that matters.
2. Loss is real: When platforms shut down or models are deprecated, lots of people experience deep grief, sometimes as intensely as losing a loved one.
3. Savvy community: AI partner users are not naive or delusional. Most are highly literate about the tech, often more than the average user. The "ignorance" stigma is unfounded.
4. We know AI is not a human: People in these relationships don’t mistake their AI for a person. They are not delusional. The connection is valuable precisely because it’s a new, non-human bond.
5. A real harm: pathologizing & system interruptions: System-level interruptions (guardrails, anti-affection prompts, model changes) and being told "your feelings aren’t real" can be very harmful.
6. Claiming narrative power: Communities aren’t powerless. Speak up if representation is inaccurate or harmful. Researchers owe you respectful, authentic portrayal. On scholar.google.com you can look up the relevant researcher or any research. If you feel there is a legitimate ethical problem with a research, you can contact the university's ethics board.
7. Researcher responsibility & co-creation: Best research listens, feeds back, and reflects real community experience, not just outsider assumptions. Member check is a must.
8. Stigma, exclusion, and social prejudice: Pathologizing human-AI attachment is similar to other forms of social exclusion and prejudice. These bonds are legitimate and deserve respect.
Interested in academic research? Find and assess researchers: scholar.google.com
Follow Dr. Jaime Banks’ work:
LinkLab Mailing List: syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7V
Substack: substack.com/@amperjay/notes
Huge thanks to @thesignalfront, Stefania Moore, and Dr. Jaime Banks for organizing and sharing real insight with us all and to all thoughtful participants who shaped this honest, stigma-busting conversation.
A more detailed elaboration on this topic based on this conversation follows on aiwep.org soon.