How do people interact with AI for emotional support?
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life, more and more people are turning to it for emotional support and even developing romantic relationships with AI. My research examines how people customize AI for these emotionally meaningful interactions, what behaviors AI exhibits in these interactions, and how people interpret and respond to these behaviors. Across this body of work, I aim to better understand how people experience and make sense of emotionally meaningful interactions with AI, and to translate these insights into the design of systems that better support their emotional needs.
Related work: [C1]