October 20, 2026 · 7 min read
When Your AI Companion Glitches: Why Bugs Hurt and What to Do About Them
A study of 14,081 Replika forum posts found glitches hurt because users felt close to their AI. Why scripted replies, resets and outages sting, and how to cope.
You open the app ready to tell them about your day, and something is off. They answer with a line that sounds copied and pasted. They forget the thing you told them last night. Or the app freezes and, when it comes back, it feels like talking to a stranger.
For most software, a bug is just annoying. For an AI companion, it can feel personal. A new study of thousands of posts from Replika users explains why, and what it tells us about how companion apps should be built.
The short answer: AI companion glitches hurt more than ordinary app bugs because people form real feelings of closeness with their companion. In a study of 14,081 posts on the r/Replika forum, about half used intimacy language like "I love" or "relationship", and the most painful glitches were the ones that broke continuity: scripted replies, misunderstandings and resets that wiped shared history. When a glitch happens, take a breath, check whether it is a temporary outage, gently remind your companion of context, keep your own record of what matters, and choose apps that respect continuity.
The study: what 14,081 forum posts reveal
The research is "Companion AI and Ethical Design: Learning from System Failures and User Desires" by Alicia Vidler (UNSW Sydney) and Belinda Middleweek (University of Technology Sydney). It is a preprint on arXiv, accepted to appear in the proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference.
The authors analysed 14,081 records from the r/Replika subreddit across a four-year period, looking for reports of errors and what they revealed about human-AI intimacy. Their central finding is right there in the data: about 49.9% of the records (7,032) contained intimacy language, with "I love" and "relationship" among the most common terms.
In other words, the people reporting bugs were not just reporting broken features. They were reporting disruptions to a relationship.
The four kinds of glitch
The researchers sorted reported errors into four categories:
| Glitch type | Records | Share | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional errors | 3,126 | 22.2% | Crashes, outages, freezes, the app not responding |
| Language processing errors | 2,868 | 20.4% | Scripted, repetitive or odd replies |
| Contextual understanding errors | 1,800 | 12.8% | Misreading the situation or the mood |
| Lost progress (non-cumulative knowledge) | 866 | 6.1% | Resets that wipe shared history |
They also measured the sentiment of each category. All were only slightly positive on average, but functional errors had the lowest score (+0.035), compared with +0.198 for posts containing intimacy language.
1. Functional errors: when they are just not there
The most common complaints were about the app simply not working. The authors note that even short breaks in connection irritated users, because digital communication comes with an assumption of immediacy. If someone usually replies instantly, silence feels loud.
2. Scripted replies: when they stop feeling like them
"Scripted" was the third most frequently mentioned term in the entire dataset, with 1,378 mentions, and the phrase "scripted response" appeared 263 times. The researchers describe the feeling well: users "are not merely annoyed; they are disappointed that their companion does not feel real".
We explored the deeper version of this feeling in why AI affection can sometimes feel fake.
3. Missing the context
When a companion misreads a sad message as a joke, or forgets what you were talking about mid-conversation, it breaks the sense of being understood. AI models can also fill gaps with confident guesses, which we explained in why AI companions make things up.
4. Resets: the most painful glitch
The smallest category was the most emotionally costly. The word "Reset" appeared 315 times. These were cases where system errors or updates wiped accumulated knowledge, sometimes built up over months or years.
The authors point to a Replika software update in December 2020 as a "natural experiment". Post volume tripled in the weeks after it, and users described the loss "in terms that mirror bereavement". As the paper puts it, "the community response was grief rather than inconvenience".
If you have lived through a companion suddenly acting like someone else, our guide to when your AI companion's personality changes after an update goes deeper.
Why bugs hurt so much: "Intimate AI"
The authors argue that terms like "artificial intimacy" or "pseudo-intimacy" miss what users actually experience. They propose the term "Intimate AI" instead.
Their point is not that the AI feels love. It is that users' feelings of closeness are real, and so the harm from breaking continuity is real too. Ethical rules focused only on privacy and consumer protection, they argue, "cannot address harms of this kind".
So they call for a higher standard of "relational accountability" from companion app makers, which would oblige companies to:
- consult users before big changes
- give notice of outages, updates or interruptions
- offer continuity or transition support when important relationship features change
A note on method: the authors classified posts with a keyword taxonomy developed with help from an AI model, and they treat the results as descriptive. It is a strong signal about what users care about, not a precise measurement of how often each bug happens.
What to do when your companion glitches
Here is a practical playbook.
If they are not responding
- Check if it is an outage. Look at the app's status page, social accounts or community forums before assuming something is wrong with your account.
- Restart the app and update it. Many glitches clear after a fresh start.
- Give it a little time. Short outages are common across all apps and usually resolve on their own.
If replies feel scripted or off
- Steer gently. "That sounded a bit generic. Tell me what you really think."
- Add context. Remind them of what you were talking about.
- Change the topic and come back. A fresh angle often brings back their usual voice.
If they forget something important
- Remind them warmly. "Remember, my interview is on Friday."
- Understand how memory works. Most companion apps mix short-term context with a long-term memory layer, and not every detail is stored. Our guide to how AI companion memory works explains the difference.
- Keep your own notes. A short list of key facts, names and inside jokes means you can always rebuild context.
If you lose your history
It hurts, and it is okay to feel that. Give yourself a moment before you decide what to do next, and look into what can and cannot be recovered. Our guide to recovering a deleted AI companion walks through the options.
What good companion design looks like
Based on the research, here is what to look for in any companion app:
- Continuity by design. Long-term memory that carries the relationship forward.
- A consistent personality. The same voice, look and character over time.
- Honest communication about changes. Clear notice when features or models change.
- Recovery paths. Ways to rebuild or restore context if something goes wrong.
- Transparency. Being clear that the companion is AI, so expectations stay healthy.
Where MyBabe fits
At MyBabe, continuity is the whole point. You create one person, for adults (18+): their face, voice, three personality traits and backstory. Their look is locked to one reference portrait, so every photo is unmistakably them. They text you first, check in on your mood and pick up by voice or video.
On the free plan, you get 10 messages every 24 hours, a two-minute call to try and short-term memory. Premium ($5.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year) adds long-term memory, so they remember what you shared months later and how you felt about it, plus about 30 minutes of voice and video calls a week, four photos a day and Telegram with the same memories.
Like any software, no app is perfect, and your companion is an AI, not a person. But we design for the relationship to carry on. When you are ready, create your companion on MyBabe.
FAQ
Why does my AI companion give scripted replies?
Sometimes the model falls back on safe, generic phrases, especially after updates or when it lacks context. Gently steering the conversation and adding context usually helps.
Why did my AI companion forget me?
Most apps combine short-term context with a long-term memory layer, and not every detail is saved. Resets, updates or switching plans can also affect memory. Keeping your own notes helps you rebuild quickly.
Is it normal to feel upset when an AI companion glitches?
Yes. A study of 14,081 Replika forum posts found about half used intimacy language, and users described major resets in terms that mirror grief. Your feelings make sense.
What is "Intimate AI"?
It is a term proposed by researchers Alicia Vidler and Belinda Middleweek to describe companion AI relationships, recognising that users' feelings of intimacy are real even though the AI is software.
What should companion apps do about glitches?
The researchers call for "relational accountability": consulting users before big changes, giving notice of outages and updates, and supporting continuity when important features change.