Relationships are essential to our happiness and wellbeing. The dissolution of a relationship, the final stage of relationship's lifecycle and one of the most stressful events in an individual's life, can have profound and long-lasting impacts on people. With the breakup process increasingly facilitated by computer-mediated communication (CMC), and the likely future influence of AI-mediated communication (AIMC) tools, we conducted a semi-structured interview study with 21 participants. We aim to understand: 1) the current role of technology in the breakup process, 2) the needs and support individuals have during the process, and 3) how AI might address these needs. Our research shows that people have distinct needs at various stages of ending a relationship. Presently, technology is used for information gathering and community support, acting as a catalyst for breakups, enabling ghosting and blocking, and facilitating communication. Participants anticipate that AI could aid in sense-making of their relationship leading up to the breakup, act as a mediator, assist in crafting appropriate wording, tones, and language during breakup conversations, and support companionship, reflection, recovery, and growth after a breakup. Our findings also demonstrate an overlap between the breakup process and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change. Through the lens of TTM, we explore the potential support and affordances AI could offer in breakups, including its benefits and the necessary precautions regarding AI's role in this sensitive process.

翻译：关系对我们的幸福和福祉至关重要。关系终结——生命周期中的最后阶段，也是个体生命中最具压力的事件之一——会对人们产生深远而持久的影响。随着分手过程越来越多地借助计算机中介传播（CMC）得以推进，并且人工智能中介传播（AIMC）工具未来可能产生的影响，我们开展了一项包含21名参与者的半结构化访谈研究。旨在了解：1）技术在当前分手过程中的作用，2）个体在这一过程中的需求和支持，以及3）人工智能如何满足这些需求。研究表明，人们在结束关系的不同阶段有着截然不同的需求。目前，技术被用于信息收集和社区支持，充当分手的催化剂，实现“幽灵式分手”和屏蔽功能，并促进沟通。参与者预期，人工智能有助于理解导致分手的关系脉络，充当调解者，协助在分手对话中构建恰当的措辞、语气和语言，并在分手后提供陪伴、反思、恢复和成长的支持。我们的发现还揭示了分手过程与行为改变跨理论模型（TTM）的重叠。通过TTM的视角，我们探讨了人工智能在分手过程中可能提供的支持与功能，包括其益处以及在这一敏感过程中对人工智能作用所必需采取的预防措施。