This position paper discusses the benefits of longitudinal behavioural research with customised AI tools for exploring the opportunities and risks of synthetic relationships. Synthetic relationships are defined as "continuing associations between humans and AI tools that interact with one another wherein the AI tool(s) influence(s) humans' thoughts, feelings, and/or actions." (Starke et al., 2024). These relationships can potentially improve health, education, and the workplace, but they also bring the risk of subtle manipulation and privacy and autonomy concerns. To harness the opportunities of synthetic relationships and mitigate their risks, we outline a methodological approach that complements existing findings. We propose longitudinal research designs with self-assembled AI agents that enable the integration of detailed behavioural and self-reported data.

翻译：本立场论文探讨了采用定制化AI工具进行纵向行为研究对于探索合成关系机遇与风险的价值。合成关系被定义为"人类与交互式AI工具之间持续存在的关联，其中AI工具能够影响人类的思想、情感和/或行为"（Starke等人，2024）。这类关系可能改善健康、教育和工作场所环境，但同时也带来隐性操控的风险以及隐私与自主权方面的隐忧。为把握合成关系的机遇并降低其风险，我们提出了一种补充现有研究成果的方法论路径。我们建议采用可自主组装的AI智能体开展纵向研究设计，从而实现详细行为数据与自我报告数据的有机整合。