A similar moment I had was when Claude referred to itself as "he" and I was like...you are not a he? You are an it. (Beck Tench, CDT)

Beck Tench, CDT

This happened to me, too! And, it was creepy. I immediately told either ChatGPT or Claude (I can't remember which LLM) to stop and it immediately did. It felt... well... "haunting". Hollow, creepy, manipulative.

Chrystal Koech, Nearfield

Interviewer: Have you ever had an experience with AI that you've kept thinking about after?

"Yeah, I think it really was that one time where I used my friend's AI.... And I looked back through her history because she didn't care. And it was the way that she talked to the – she talked to the thing. And then it slowly, over time, morphed into talking like her and using the emojis and the slang and whatever. And I was like, okay, I don't like that. That was, it was more of a, like a haunting type thought.

Interviewer: Haunting is such an interesting word. Tell me a little bit about why you choose that word haunting?

"...It's really kind of, it is creepy to me how technology is able to so quickly mimic like a real person... Say somebody took that information and texted me pretending to be [my friend]. I wouldn't know the difference. It talks just like her, and I feel like it's creepy to think about how quickly things like that could go awry."

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Teen Interviewee | Age 17 | Grade 12 | Girl | White

Citation: Nearfield. (2026, April). Spring 2026 Gen AI and social media listening loop [Collection of participant quotes]. Nearfield Listening Library. www.thenearfield.org/quotes/haunting-ai

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