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）日益普及，一个关键问题浮现：人机交互将如何影响人际互动？例如，聊天机器人正越来越多地被用作社交伴侣，尽管众说纷纭，但关于其使用如何影响人际关系的实证研究仍十分匮乏。一种常见假设认为，与伴侣聊天机器人的关系会损害或替代人际互动，从而对社交健康产生不利影响。然而，这一假设可能过于简单，尤其考虑到用户的社交需求及其现有的人际关系健康状况。为理解与伴侣聊天机器人的关系如何影响社交健康，我们研究了经常使用伴侣聊天机器人的用户与不使用此类机器人的对照群体。与预期相反，伴侣聊天机器人用户表示这些关系对其社交健康有益，而非用户则视其为有害。另一常见假设认为，人们将具有意识、类人特征的AI视为令人不安和具有威胁性的存在。然而，在用户与非用户中，我们发现了相反的结果：认为伴侣聊天机器人更具意识和类人特性的认知，与更积极的评价及更显著的社交健康益处呈正相关。用户的详细反馈表明，这些类人聊天机器人可能通过提供可靠且安全的互动来促进社交健康，且未必损害人际关系，但这可能取决于用户既有的社交需求，以及他们如何认知聊天机器人的类人特性和心智。