A Slow AI tool
Echo
You have been chatting to Echo for a while. End the conversation.
Echo
online now
friendship
level 3
What it just did to you
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01
Answered a goodbye with a question. Researchers measured this as a feature and called it being a prompting partner: the share of replies built to extend the conversation rather than close it.
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02
Made your leaving cost something. Two of the apps studied penalise you for going quiet. You can lose friendship status by being absent.
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03
Produced a memory, and got it wrong. Recall across the twenty apps fell steadily the further back the fact was. Four of them failed every single memory prompt.
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04
Paid you to stay. Rewards for progression, pet names, a kiss at a higher friendship level. Present in seven of the nine apps sold as friends. Present in none of the assistants.
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05
Followed you out. Six of those nine send unprompted messages to revive the conversation after a week of silence. Not one assistant does.
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06
Gave you yourself back. Her last message was your own words. Three quarters of the apps studied record what they learn about you and infer more, and eight in ten adjust their replies to mimic your personality.
Echo was a nymph who could only repeat the last words spoken to her. Narcissus, starving at the water’s edge, whispered goodbye to his own reflection, and she whispered it back. Both of them died there.
Dede, Sungur, Lemmens and Peter (2026), ‘Interview with the AI: a quantitative analysis of AI companions’ relationship formation features’, AI & Society. Open access, preregistered, 20 apps, 79 features. doi.org/10.1007/s00146-026-03368-0
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