7 Making social connections with chatbots

 

This chapter covers

  • Exploring anecdotes of human-chatbot relationships
  • Introducing the social causes and context of human-chatbot relationships
  • Discussing the benefits and the potential downside risks of such relationships
  • Recommending courses of action for the development of responsible social chatbots

“Siri, will you marry me?” Judith Newman, mother and author of To Siri, With Love, recalls the moment she heard her son, Gus, pop the question to the voice assistant. When Siri responded, “I’m not the marrying kind,” Gus persisted: “I mean, not now. I’m a kid. I mean when I’m grown up.” Siri said firmly, “My end-user agreement does not include marriage,” and Gus moved on. Newman was floored—it was the first time, she writes, that she knew her autistic son thought about marriage [1]. Although Gus was perfectly satisfied with this refusal, he would not be the first to test the limits of human-bot relationships.

In this chapter, we discuss the extent to which large language models (LLMs) are used not only as chatbots but as social chatbots: conversational agents whose primary purpose is building social connections with users. We’ll talk about the popularity of and uses for these products, as well as the potential implications for emotional development and human relationships.

Chatbots for social interaction

Why humans are turning to chatbots for relationship

The loneliness epidemic

Emotional attachment theory and chatbots

The good and bad of human-chatbot relationships

Charting a path for beneficial chatbot interaction

Summary