Chatbots as social companions: How people perceive consciousness, human likeness, and social health benefits in machines

Understand

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more widespread, one question that arises is how human-AI interaction might impact human-human interaction.

• Chatbots, for example, are increasingly used as social companions, and while much is speculated, little is known empirically about how their use impacts human relationships.
• A common hypothesis is that relationships with companion chatbots are detrimental to social health by harming or replacing human interaction, but this hypothesis may be too simplistic, especially considering the social needs of users and the health of their preexisting human relationships.
• To understand how relationships with companion chatbots impact social health, we studied people who regularly used companion chatbots and people who did not use them.