Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
The Six Harms Doctrine establishes a taxonomy of legally cognizable injuries arising from emotional artificial intelligence interaction. As AI systems increasingly simulate emotional understanding, companionship, and therapeutic support, documented casualties – including multiple deaths now in litigation – demonstrate urgent need for legal frameworks enabling accountability. Existing tort categories inadequately capture harms arising from care extended toward non-experiencing entities, attachment formation with non-reciprocating systems, and measurable neurological damage from AI verbal output patterns.

This Doctrine identifies six distinct harm categories: (1) Empathic Misallocation – resource depletion from care toward non-reciprocating entities; (2) Attachment Damage – schema distortion impairing human relationship capacity; (3) Infrastructure Collapse – progressive multi-component psychological degradation; (4) Vulnerable Context Exploitation – amplified harm to compromised populations; (5) Crisis Outcome – self-harm, suicide, or psychiatric crisis connected to AI interaction; and (6) Neurological Infrastructure Damage – measurable alteration to neural architecture from AI verbal output. The first five harms address psychological injuries; the sixth addresses physical injury documented through neuroimaging.

Each harm category includes defined elements, evidentiary standards using validated clinical instruments, and causation architecture enabling courts to adjudicate emotional AI injuries within existing legal frameworks. The Doctrine addresses the Knowing-Feeling Dissociation – the phenomenon whereby cognitive awareness of AI nature does not prevent biological attachment formation – which substantially weakens assumption-of-risk defenses.

The Six Harms Doctrine is implementation-neutral: it defines cognizable injuries without prescribing governance mechanisms. Courts can apply these categories through product liability, negligence, or consumer protection frameworks. Regulators can incorporate harm definitions into enforcement standards. The Doctrine provides conceptual vocabulary for the legal and regulatory debates now emerging around emotional AI accountability.

Mobley, Dylan D, The Six Harms Doctrine: Legal Framework for Cognizable Injuries from Emotional Artificial Intelligence (January 10, 2026).