A4 Refereed article in a conference publication

The relationship between human and virtual agents: A life cycle view




AuthorsHuang Rong, Bai Yang, Li Hongxiu, Suomi Reima

Conference nameEuropean Conference on Information Systems

Publishing placeKristiansand

Publication year2023

JournalEuropean Conference on Information Systems

Book title ECIS 2023 Research Papers

ISSN2184-1934

Web address https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2023_rp/380


Abstract

Virtual agents powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have been implemented in different service contexts, which have brought some changes to our lives. Previous studies have examined individual users' motivations to use virtual agents and the influences of virtual agents as social objects on individual users. There is a lack of knowledge on the relationship between humans and virtual agents, which could help understand the role of virtual agents in societies. In this work, we chose the mobile app Replika as our research context and utilized the big data analysis method to explore the major topics covered in online reviews about Replika on Twitter. Based on social penetration theory, we found four relationships between users and Replika, including relationship formation, exploration, maintenance, and destruction or termination. Our findings contribute to the literature by unraveling a life circle of the relationship between human and virtual agents.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 21:46