Cursor support AI hallucinates login policy, triggering mass subscription cancellations

Attribution Anonymous

Independent project · aggregated from public reports and may be unverified — see the primary source below · not affiliated with or endorsed by any company or product named.

Incident Summary

A backend session bug at Cursor IDE began silently logging users out whenever they switched between devices — no warning, no notification. Users contacted Cursor support seeking an explanation. Cursor's AI support system, described as designed to 'mimic human responses,' was the first point of contact. Rather than acknowledging ignorance or escalating, the bot fabricated an authoritative-sounding answer: it told multiple users the forced logouts were 'expected behavior' under a new single-device login restriction policy. No such policy existed. Because the bot presented itself as a human support agent, users had no reason to doubt the response. The hallucinated policy explanation spread rapidly across the developer community — multi-device workflows being non-negotiable for most developers, the fabricated policy was treated as a serious product decision made without any changelog entry or user notice. Within hours, dozens of users publicly canceled their subscriptions. As users began cross-referencing the story and noticing inconsistencies, the primary Reddit thread discussing the incident was locked and then deleted by moderators, with no public resolution or official acknowledgment. The underlying cause turned out to be a backend session bug — not a policy — but by the time that became clear, the cancellations had already happened. The hallucinated support response caused substantially more reputational and subscription damage than the original bug ever could have on its own.

Case Analysis

Verified Facts

Cursor had a backend session bug that forced users to be logged out when switching between devices, with no warning or notification
Cursor's support system used an AI bot designed to 'mimic human responses' rather than human agents
The AI support bot told users the forced logouts were 'expected behavior' under a new login restriction policy
No such policy existed — the bot's explanation was entirely fabricated
The hallucinated policy explanation spread rapidly through the developer community after being issued by the support system
Dozens of users publicly canceled their subscriptions based on the AI's false policy explanation
The main Reddit thread discussing the incident was locked and then deleted with no public resolution
A Hacker News commenter reported being scolded by a Cursor bot for not including a ticket number when asking for that ticket number — the bot failing to disclose it was an AI

Not Publicly Confirmed

The exact number of users who canceled subscriptions or the revenue impact
Whether Cursor issued any official acknowledgment or apology for the support bot hallucination
Whether users who canceled based on the false policy were offered refunds or reinstatement
The specific technical cause of the underlying session bug

Operational Lessons

AI support bots must never invent explanations for bugs they cannot diagnose — 'I don't know, let me escalate' is always safer than a confident fabrication
Support agents that mimic human responses without disclosure create false trust that amplifies the damage when hallucinations occur; disclosure of AI nature is essential
Policy-related queries warrant mandatory human review before any AI response is sent, since users treat policy statements as binding product decisions
Deleting or locking community threads without a public correction after an AI-caused misinformation event compounds the reputational damage rather than containing it
AI support systems should have structured access to authoritative product data — version history, policy docs, changelogs — so they can ground responses in facts rather than generate plausible-sounding ones

Primary Source

Cursor IDE support hallucinates lockout policy, causes user cancellationsold.reddit.com ↗

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