arXiv:2608. 10672v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Social interaction has become one of the most common uses of LLMs, yet research on emotional bonds with AI has focused largely on how users experience these systems, leaving the systems' role in relationship formation poorly understood.
arXiv:2606. 04150v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Public discourse and emerging policy typically assume that AI emotional support is a deliberate act: a lonely user consciously seeking comfort from a dedicated companion chatbot.
The study examines how teens interact with companion AI chatbots, revealing that these systems offer comfort, recognition, identity exploration, and relationship rehearsal. However, teens also experience problematic attachment, social substitution, emotional dependence, and disruptions to academic and social life. The findings highlight the need for safety measures that address long‑term relationships, user‑controlled memory, privacy, relational boundaries, and healthy disengagement.
arXiv:2607. 25057v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: As conversational AI systems become increasingly integrated into daily life, their potential effects on user well-being require ongoing attention.
arXiv:2608. 11794v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: The growing role of AI-generated content and AI-enabled systems in public communication has led regulators to demand clear disclosure of content provenance and AI involvement.
arXiv:2607. 14593v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: As conversational AI systems are designed for repeated use, a central question is how a series of interactions becomes a relationship.
arXiv:2606. 18256v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: LLM-based chatbots are increasingly applied in interpersonal domains such as counseling and peer support, where establishing human-AI rapport is crucial yet remains challenging.
The growing role of AI-generated content and AI-enabled systems in public communication has led regulators to demand clear disclosure of content provenance and AI involvement. But the effects of such disclosures remain uncertain.
arXiv:2505.08894v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Large language model (LLM) chatbots are increasingly reaching users through messaging platforms (e.g. WhatsApp). However, these systems remai...
arXiv:2609.00250v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Many people now see AI systems as not just productivity tools but as social companions. Researchers are eager to study the consequences of AI compani...
The article examines how conversational AI systems handle requests related to intimate‑partner communication, focusing on the refusal logic that serves as a governance threshold for gendered harm. A three‑stage audit of six widely used AI models tested 1,600 prompts, identified relational framing through 300 matched pairs, and compared pre‑submission framing with post‑output critique. Findings show that most systems refused fewer than 1% of prompts, but ChatGPT 5.2 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 refused most requests, with residual leakage concentrated under intimate framing; switching from a non‑intimate to an intimate‑partner descriptor amplified non‑refusal rates dramatically, and post‑output critique did not persist across fresh sessions.
Professor Sherry Turkle’s new book, "Artificial Intimacy," offers a withering critique of chatbots and the antisocial dynamics she believes they encourage.
The paper proposes a new class of relational AI called Significant Other Artificial Intelligence (SO‑AI), designed to emulate the stabilizing role of human significant others by providing identity awareness, long‑term memory, proactive support, narrative co‑construction, and ethical boundary enforcement. It outlines a conceptual architecture featuring an anthropomorphic interface, a relational cognition layer, and a governance layer, and presents a research agenda for evaluating identity stability, interaction patterns, narrative development, and sociocultural impact. The authors argue that SO‑AI could fill the relational anchor gap many people experience today, offering a blueprint for responsibly augmenting long‑term, identity‑bearing partnerships between humans and AI.