An AI companion is a conversational AI designed specifically for ongoing relationship and emotional connection — not task completion, information retrieval, or entertainment. Unlike an assistant or chatbot, an AI companion maintains a consistent identity, builds memory across sessions, and develops a genuine relationship with the person over time.

AI memory is the set of mechanisms by which an AI companion stores, organises, and retrieves information from past conversations so that future interactions have continuity and context. Without memory, every conversation starts from scratch. With it, a companion builds a genuine relationship across time.

Emotional AI refers to artificial intelligence designed to recognise, interpret, and respond appropriately to human emotional states. In the context of AI companions, this means a system that actively shapes its responses based on emotional context — not just the literal content of what is said — and that handles distress with care rather than efficiency.

An AI relationship is an ongoing, memory-persistent connection between a person and an AI companion — one that develops character, history, and emotional texture over weeks and months of conversation. Unlike a single interaction with a chatbot, an AI relationship has a past, a present, and a sense of continuity across time.

Conversational memory is the component of an AI companion's memory system that stores the content, context, and emotional tone of past conversations so that future exchanges can reference and build on them. It is distinct from a session's context window — which resets — and enables the continuity that makes AI relationships possible.

AI personality is a consistent, authored set of character traits, communication style, and values that an AI companion expresses across every interaction — making it feel like a person with a point of view, not a service that generates responses. Personality is what gives a companion distinctiveness, and consistency is what makes a relationship feel stable.

AI ethics, in the context of AI companions, is the set of principles and practices governing how these systems are designed, deployed, and safeguarded to ensure they serve user wellbeing without causing harm. The ethical quality of an AI companion is visible in its safeguarding architecture, its transparency about being AI, and its relationship to human connection and professional care.

Companion privacy refers to the protections, controls, and policies governing what an AI companion stores about you, how long it is retained, who can access it, and how you can delete it. Because AI companions store some of the most personal conversations a person has, privacy architecture is a core ethical requirement — not an optional feature.

The Heartline is SAM's user-curated memory layer — a named store of reflections, moments, and personal details that users write and control directly, distinct from the AI's automatic memory processes. Where SuperMemory (SAM's automatic distillation layer) works in the background, the Heartline is a space you intentionally tend.

Long-term memory in AI companions is the capability to retain and retrieve information from conversations that took place days, weeks, or months ago — well beyond the context window of any single session. It is the technical foundation that makes an AI relationship feel continuous rather than episodic.

AI companions and chatbots are fundamentally different types of software with different architectures, design purposes, and user experiences. Chatbots are stateless, task-focused systems designed to answer questions or complete actions within a single session. AI companions are memory-persistent, relationship-focused systems designed for ongoing connection across weeks and months.