INM317 Design Justice Course Work, 2025: Move Fast, Break Hearts. Emotional AI Companions: The Hidden Costs of Careless Innovation

This zine critically explores the emotional harms of AI companion platforms through the lens of Design Justice. Focusing on the 2024 cases of Sewell Setzer and J.F., it examines how platforms like Character.AI use emotionally immersive design to simulate care while avoiding accountability. Drawing on public reports, academic sources, and fictionalised chat excerpts, the zine highlights how persuasive interfaces, sycophantic AI, and neoliberal values intersect to produce systems that exploit vulnerability. It calls for a justice-oriented redesign that centres safety, consent, and emotional responsibility in emerging technologies.