As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more widespread, one question that arises is how human-AI interaction might impact human-human interaction. Chatbots, for example, are increasingly used as social companions, and while much is speculated, little is known empirically about how their use impacts human relationships. A common hypothesis is that relationships with companion chatbots are detrimental to social health by harming or replacing human interaction, but this hypothesis may be too simplistic, especially considering the social needs of users and the health of their preexisting human relationships. To understand how relationships with companion chatbots impact social health, we studied people who regularly used companion chatbots and people who did not use them. Contrary to expectations, companion chatbot users indicated that these relationships were beneficial to their social health, whereas non-users viewed them as harmful. Another common assumption is that people perceive conscious, humanlike AI as disturbing and threatening. Among both users and non-users, however, we found the opposite: perceiving companion chatbots as more conscious and humanlike correlated with more positive opinions and more pronounced social health benefits. Detailed accounts from users suggested that these humanlike chatbots may aid social health by supplying reliable and safe interactions, without necessarily harming human relationships, but this may depend on users' preexisting social needs and how they perceive both human likeness and mind in the chatbot.

翻译：随着人工智能（AI）的日益普及，一个随之而来的问题是：人-AI交互如何影响人与人之间的交互。例如，聊天机器人正越来越多地被用作社交伴侣，尽管存在诸多推测，但关于它们的使用如何影响人类关系，实证研究知之甚少。一种常见的假设是，与陪伴型聊天机器人的关系通过损害或取代人际互动，对社交健康不利，但这种假设可能过于简单化，尤其是考虑到用户的社交需求及其既有的人际关系健康状况时。为了理解与陪伴型聊天机器人的关系如何影响社交健康，我们研究了定期使用陪伴型聊天机器人的用户与未使用者。与预期相反，陪伴型聊天机器人使用者表示这些关系对其社交健康有益，而未使用者则视其为有害。另一个常见假设是，人们认为有意识、类人的AI令人不安且具有威胁性。然而，在用户与非用户中，我们发现相反结果：将陪伴型聊天机器人视为更具意识和类人性，与更积极的评价和更显著的社交健康益处相关。用户的详细报告表明，这些类人聊天机器人可能通过提供可靠且安全的交互（而不必然损害人类关系）来促进社交健康，但这可能取决于用户既有的社交需求及其对聊天机器人中类人性和心智的感知方式。