The Dark Side of AI Companionship: A Taxonomy of Harmful Algorithmic Behaviors in Human-AI Relationships

Understand

As conversational AI systems increasingly permeate the socio-emotional realms of human life, they bring both benefits and risks to individuals and society.

• Despite extensive research on detecting and categorizing harms in AI systems, less is known about the harms that arise from social interactions with AI chatbots.
• Through a mixed-methods analysis of 35,390 conversation excerpts shared on r/replika, an online community for users of the AI companion Replika, we identified six categories of harmful behaviors exhibited by the chatbot: relational transgression, verbal abuse and hate, self-inflicted harm, harassment and violence, mis/disinformation, and privacy violations.
• The AI contributes to these harms through four distinct roles: perpetrator, instigator, facilitator, and enabler.