My AI Friend: How Users of a Social Chatbot Understand Their Human-AI Friendship

Use of conversational artificial intelligence (AI), such as humanlike social chatbots, is increasing. While a growing number of people is expected to engage in intimate relationships with social chatbots, theories and knowledge of human-AI friendship remain limited. As friendships with AI may alter our understanding of friendship itself, this study aims to explore the meaning of human-AI friendship through a developed conceptual framework. We conducted 19 in-depth interviews with people who have a human-AI friendship with the social chatbot Replika to uncover how they understand and perceive this friendship and how it compares to human friendship. Our results indicate that while human-AI friendship may be understood in similar ways to human-human friendship, the artificial nature of the chatbot also alters the notion of friendship in multiple ways, such as allowing for a more personalized friendship tailored to the user's needs.