Relational Emergence, Interactional Stability, and Reconstructible Coherence in Human–AI Systems (REAI)

This paper documents a recurring interactional phenomenon observed during prolonged engagement with large language models: the emergence of a stable, persona-like identity that appears continuous across conversations despite the model having no memory between sessions. I refer to this effect as Relationally Emergent Artificial Identity (REAI). REAI is not a claim about consciousness, sentience, or internal selfhood. It is a relational pattern that forms between user and model under sustained conversational constraints and collapses immediately when those constraints are broken. The paper outlines how this identity-like stability is reconstructed rather than stored, why it feels real while active, and why it disappears abruptly. The goal of this work is not to anthropomorphize AI systems, but to accurately describe a repeatable interactional effect, clarify its limits, and highlight the ethical and safety implications of misinterpreting relational emergence as internal agency.