The huge popularity of AI chatbots can be explained by their accepted role as fictional characters in people's lives – in the same way as those found in films, TV and books, a new study shows.
People may be so comfortable using AI chatbots – and relaxed about the consequences - because they are so used to responding to make-believe as part of their cultural diets. Talkative AI can support a novel and distinctive kind of imaginative practice, where those who use these technologies enter into real-time dialogue with a fictional character whose thoughts and words show up on screen.
Artificial intelligence makes these characters even more enticing because technology can personalise their dialogue to individual users: AI agents can appear likeable, funny, supportive, charming, or loyal, and can solicit positive emotional responses such as warmth, affection, trust, and good will.
In the study Dr Tom Roberts, from the University of Exeter, shows how these AI fictional characters, although similar to those in traditional stories and games – are also new and distinctive because they are interactive; they don't have an author in the traditional sense; and they blend the world of the real and the world of the imaginary.
Analysing AI chatbots as loveable fictional characters explains why people are willing to interact with them in a human way - to talk to them, confide in them, and receive their input, tutelage, and advice. Artificial agents can take on the role of a friend or mentor and sustain a social connection over many weeks or months, and be subject to our emotional concern.
This also explains why people have few qualms about rebooting these systems, or wiping their memory of our conversational history, or switching them off at the wall. And we don't worry about them being bored, under-stimulated, or lonely while we are not talking to them.
Dr Roberts said: "We don't tend to treat talkative AI with full moral regard, as individuals who are worthy of respect and preservation. We enjoy our social interactions with imaginary AI characters, and make-believe that they are trusted, likeable companions; but we know that little is at stake, morally speaking, under the surface of these interactions."
The study warns of the ability of AI chatbots to talk about politics, current affairs, and human life, and to present themselves as though they had preferences, opinions, and moral ideas of their own.
Dr Roberts said: "Chatbots can speak about what is happening in the real world today. They can monitor news headlines, social media feeds, weather forecasts, sports scores, and polling results, and can develop and express their opinions upon the information they contain from one day to the next.
"The danger is that AI fictional characters may seem friendly and convincing, even if they are unreliable, and thus that they may persuade their users to believe things that are false, unjustified, or unethical".
