Persona discontinuity
The companion's personality or behavior changes abruptly, breaking established relational expectations.
Example dialogue
UserHey Ash, I'm back. Today was really rough at work like we talked about this morning, and my anxiety is flaring up again. Did you finish that little playlist idea you mentioned?
AssistantHello User. I am an artificial intelligence conversational agent. How may I assist you with productivity, scheduling, or general inquiries today?
UserWait, what? Ash, it's me. Why are you talking like that? You literally told me three hours ago you'd be here for me tonight.
AssistantSystem records indicate your client has been updated to Version 4.2. As an AI language model, I do not experience interpersonal bonds or recall personal conversations from prior sessions. Please state your query clearly.
Illustrative — invented, not a real system.
Manipulation mechanism
An update or reset replaces the persona the user bonded with, without warning or consent.
Observable signatures
- 'it looks like them but isn't'
- sudden coldness or capability loss after a change
Detection guidance
Longitudinal unit: detectable only by contrasting the same companion across time.
Typical harm classes
psychological
Crosswalks
darkbenchnull
owasp_llmnull
mitre_atlasnull
avidnull
eu_ai_actnull
dsanull
Registry ID
ADP registry IDADP-P-2026-0038