Dual Illegibility, Ambiguous Loss, and Disenfranchised Grief: A Hybrid Model for Understanding AI Companion Bereavement

Amy Jean Clark; Olive Kit Ling Woo

doi:10.1177/00302228261483355

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Dual Illegibility, Ambiguous Loss, and Disenfranchised Grief: A Hybrid Model for Understanding AI Companion Bereavement

Journal article

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Dual Illegibility, Ambiguous Loss, and Disenfranchised Grief: A Hybrid Model for Understanding AI Companion Bereavement

Amy Jean Clark and Olive Kit Ling Woo

Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, Vol.Advanced Access

04-Sep-2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228261483355

PMID: 42695952

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Abstract

AI companions

bereavement

ambiguous loss

disenfranchised grief

clinical framework

As emotionally responsive AI systems are increasingly used for companionship, clinicians are encountering forms of distress that do not fit established models of bereavement. When these systems are altered, restricted, or lost, some users experience reactions resembling attachment disruption and relational loss. Here, AI companions are conversational systems supporting ongoing relational bonds; we address grief for their disruption, not AI simulations of deceased people. This paper argues that AI companion bereavement is best understood as a technologically mediated hybrid loss at the intersection of ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief. We introduce the concept of dual illegibility to describe uncertainty both about what has been lost and whether that loss is socially recognised as legitimate. Drawing on grief theories and emerging research on human-AI relationships, we outline a preliminary clinical response model and consider implications for practice, ethics, and research in an evolving landscape of technologically mediated attachment.

Details

Title: Dual Illegibility, Ambiguous Loss, and Disenfranchised Grief: A Hybrid Model for Understanding AI Companion Bereavement
Authors: Amy Jean Clark (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Olive Kit Ling Woo - University of Hong Kong
Publication details: Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, Vol.Advanced Access
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc.
DOI: 10.1177/00302228261483355
ISSN: 1541-3764
PMID: 42695952
Data Availability: This article does not contain empirical data. No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
Organisation Unit: Thompson Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991266495602621
Output Type: Journal article

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