Dual Illegibility, Ambiguous Loss, and Disenfranchised Grief: A Hybrid Model for Understanding AI Companion Bereavement
Conceptual paper proposing that the distress some users experience when an AI companion is altered, restricted or lost is best understood as a technologically mediated hybrid loss at the intersection of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief. It introduces 'dual illegibility' (uncertainty about what has been lost and about whether the loss is socially recognised as legitimate) and outlines a preliminary clinical response model. The scope is grief for the disruption of an ongoing companion relationship, explicitly excluding AI simulations of deceased people.
Publisher
OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (Sage)
Published
4 Sept 2026
Added
today
Key Findings
- Clinicians are encountering reactions resembling attachment disruption and relational loss when companion systems are altered, restricted or lost, and these do not fit established bereavement models.
- The proposed hybrid model combines ambiguous loss (the companion may persist in changed form) with disenfranchised grief (the loss lacks social recognition).
- A preliminary clinical response model and implications for practice, ethics and research are set out; the paper contains no empirical data.
Methodology Notes
Theoretical paper drawing on grief theories and research on human-AI relationships; no method section or data to appraise. Authors at CQUniversity Australia (Appleton Institute), the University of the Sunshine Coast (Thompson Institute) and the University of Hong Kong. Published online first 2026-09-04, CC BY 4.0. The Sage article page is blocked from the sweep host; verified through PubMed (42695952) and Crossref.
Sources
Authors
Amy Jean Clark, Olive Kit Ling Woo
Tags
Cite This
APA
Amy Jean Clark, Olive Kit Ling Woo. (2026). Dual Illegibility, Ambiguous Loss, and Disenfranchised Grief: A Hybrid Model for Understanding AI Companion Bereavement. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (Sage). https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228261483355