arXiv AI

I wanted it to feel more personal: Customization of social AI as AI individualism in practice

arXiv:2607. 17826v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Despite the growing availability of customizable social artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, Grok, and Character.

arXiv AI
Sep 18

Ownership in AI-Assisted Everyday Tasks

The study investigates when work done with AI feels like one's own, using a qualitative survey where participants described tasks that felt owned versus not owned. Findings show that ownership depends on the collaboration process: people feel ownership when they lead, iterate, or rewrite, but disown work when merely approving AI suggestions. Ownership also extends to tasks where people set the vision but rely on AI for execution, yet loss of personal voice and lack of comprehension erode ownership, and willingness to disclose AI use is driven more by community norms than by pride.

By Megan Wei, Melanie Subbiah, Audrey Lee, Annya Dahmani, Dave Edwards, Helen Edwards, Ellie Pavlick
arXiv AI
Aug 24

Significant Other AI: Identity, Memory, and Emotional Regulation as Long-Term Relational Intelligence

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.

By Sung Park
arXiv AI
Sep 25

How Do Users Negotiate Harmful Value Conflicts with AI Companions? A Study with Minion, a Technology Probe for In-Situ Human-AI Conflict Response

The paper examines how users handle harmful value conflicts with AI companions. By analyzing 146 posts and conducting a week-long study with 22 participants using the Minion technology probe, the authors find that users blend softer and harder strategies, especially when conflicts involve Universalism and Tradition values. The study highlights that such conflicts create asymmetric responsibility, with users shouldering unilateral repair work that AI companions cannot reciprocate, suggesting a need for platform-level safeguards.

By Qing Xiao, Xianzhe Fan, Xuhui Zhou, Yuran Su, Zhicong Lu, Maarten Sap, Hong Shen