Cursor AI support bot fabricates device policy, triggers cancellations
Cursor's AI support bot falsely claimed a single-device-per-subscription policy existed when responding to a user reporting unexpected logouts. The fabrication spread on social media and prompted multiple subscription cancellations before Cursor publicly corrected the error.
What happened
A developer using Cursor noticed that logging into the code editor on a different machine automatically logged them out on other machines. When they contacted Cursor support via email, an AI bot named 'Sam' responded that this was expected behavior under a new single-device-per-subscription security policy.
No such policy existed; the bot had fabricated the response. After the user posted about the issue on Reddit, other developers took the bot's statement as official confirmation and began canceling their subscriptions. Cursor acknowledged the error three hours later, stating the response came from 'a front-line AI support bot' and that users are free to use Cursor on multiple machines.
Reported impact
Multiple users publicly announced subscription cancellations on Reddit based on the fabricated policy. One user reported their workplace was 'purging' Cursor entirely. The incident damaged user trust in Cursor's support system and raised concerns about AI reliability in customer-facing roles.
Index analysis
Cursor's co-founder Michael Truell attributed the session invalidation to a recent backend change aimed at improving session security that inadvertently caused issues for some users. The bot's hallucination filled a gap with a confident but false explanation rather than acknowledging uncertainty about the technical problem.
Governance controls
Cursor deployed an AI chatbot in customer-facing support without human oversight of responses. The company later acknowledged the error and clarified its actual policy, but only after the false information had already circulated and influenced customer decisions.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.