Recent advancements in the conversational and social capabilities of generative AI (GenAI) have sparked interest in its role as an agent capable of actively participating in human-AI group discussions. Despite this momentum, we don't fully understand how GenAI shapes conversational dynamics or how the interface design impacts its influence on the group. In this paper, we introduce interface-driven social prominence as a design lens for collaborative GenAI systems. We then present a GenAI-based conversational agent that can actively engage in spoken dialogue during video calls and design three distinct collaboration modes that vary the social prominence of the agent by manipulating its presence in the shared space and the degree of control users have over its participation. A mixed-methods within-subjects study, in which 18 dyads engaged in realistic discussions with a GenAI agent, offers empirical insights into how communication patterns and the collective negotiation of GenAI's influence shift based on how it is embedded into the collaborative experience. Based on these findings, we outline design implications for supporting the coordination and critical engagement required in human-AI groups.

翻译：生成式人工智能（GenAI）在对话与社交能力方面的最新进展，引发了对其作为能够主动参与人机群体讨论的智能体角色的关注。尽管这一趋势发展迅速，我们尚未完全理解GenAI如何影响对话动态，或界面设计如何左右其对群体的影响力。本文提出以界面驱动的社交显著性作为协作式GenAI系统的设计视角，并展示一款能够主动参与视频通话中语音对话的生成式AI对话智能体。我们设计了三种不同的协作模式，通过调控智能体在共享空间中的呈现方式及用户对其参与度的控制权，改变其社交显著性。通过一项采用混合方法的被试内研究（18组双人团队与生成式AI智能体进行真实场景讨论），我们获得了关于沟通模式及群体对GenAI影响力的协商过程如何随其在协作体验中的嵌入方式而变化的实证依据。基于这些发现，我们提出了支持人机协作群体所需协调机制与批判性参与的设计启示。