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On an unusual train of thought I had: it'd be an interestingly dark and depressing reveal in a dystopian novel to have a subtle detail where nearly anyone that's a threat to some tyrannical government, that whenever they covertly "disappear" someone (of anyone that's not a major highly-visible public figure), that their online accounts are taken over by a government-ran generative AI trained on their collected conversation history, which would continue posting online and holding conversations to their likeness as if nothing happened (and not with any sudden 'change in tune' in beliefs or anything, like some 1984-style compelled speech).

Whereas you're following the story of the protagonist, they've made various connections with people along the way (some that they've met in-person on a few occasions), but where they correspond primarily online and usually in a private and semi-pseudonymous nature. Then it's at some late point in the story, where the protagonist is about to pull off some big feat, of something that requires the resources of their long-time connections, whereas most of them uncharacteristically back out or give very indirect responses/excuses.

Through some deductive reasoning, careful probing, and other hints, the protagonist comes across some hidden information revealing said government program, connects the dots, and realizes most of his contacts are compromised and probably haven't been alive for nearly a year, and they're just being led on as some entrapment scheme to catch them, as the protagonist is one of the very last few remaining of their mindshare.

Obviously I'm not any sort of storyteller nor writer, but that'd be neat to see someone carefully insert something like that into some story idea.