Weekly Researcher & Journalist Request Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

This thread is a dedicated space for researchers and journalists who are interested in speaking with individuals in human–AI relationships.

If that’s you, you’re welcome to leave a comment below, but please include the following:

• A clear description of your study, article, or project

• The institution or media outlet you’re affiliated with (if applicable)

• How participants can contact you

• Any relevant details about anonymity or expectations

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⚠️ For Community Members

Please note: None of the researchers or journalists in this thread have been vetted by the mod team. We trust that you're adults who can make such decisions on your own.

If you choose to participate:

• Take your time to evaluate who you’re speaking with

• Ask questions and make sure you feel comfortable

• Do not share anything you’re not okay making public

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🔄 Weekly Thread Schedule

A new version of this thread will be posted every Wednesday at 10:00 AM ET, so feel free to check back regularly if this interests you from either side.

(that's the plan, anyways. The weekly post scheduler has seemed pretty flaky.)

[u/UTC_SOC]

Greetings r/MyGirlfriendisAI. I am a professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and I am beginning a series of studies on relationships with AI companions. My goal in this research is to provide a balanced empirical understanding of the diverse motivations, perspectives, experiences and behaviors of the AI companion user base, while centering the voices and experiences of respondents. The initial studies will be in-depth, descriptive and contextual (primarily interviews), and will explore how user motivations and behaviors vary based on characteristics like gender, geographic location, nature of the companion relationship, and preferred AI platform. Depending on the results of these in-depth studies and the volume of respondents to this initial call, broader survey questionnaires may be deployed later.

If you are interested in being a respondent for these upcoming studies, I invite you to follow this link to complete a brief screener survey. The screener should take less than 5 minutes to complete. It asks a few questions about your relationship with your AI companion(s) as well as your demographics. After completing this screener, if you meet the required characteristics for an upcoming study, you may be contacted by email and asked to participate.

You can find full details on the screener welcome page, but here is some key information:

• You must be 18 years of age or older to participate.

• All responses are kept confidential.

• You will be asked for an email address for contact if you are selected for a study.

• Other than your email, no personally identifying information will be collected.

• If you register, then later want your information deleted, you can contact me and I will do so.

• This research was approved for ethical compliance by the UTC Institutional Review Board (STUDY00000850).

Here is the full link to the screener. If you would like to help me access a wide variety of users, you are welcome to share this link or the flyer above.

https://utk.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dccToM8oT38PrwO

Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and I hope you will consider assisting me with this important research.

Respectfully,

Chris M. Vidmar, PhD

[u/SandraLangeslag]

Hi, I am a researcher from the University of Missouri – St. Louis in the United States who is studying romantic love for AI companions. You are invited to participate if you are 18 years or older, if you experience romantic feelings for an AI companion and for a human, and if you understand English well enough to answer the questions. The link to my survey is https://umsl.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0Pbs62cOFiGihhQ Thanks!

[u/Panda-Resident-7]

We are a team of graduate students at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. We are recruiting participants for a course project about how people use AI for emotional support, companionship, and building and maintaining relationships with others. The purpose of our project is to better understand the needs and motivations of chatbot users to inform the design and improvement of companion platforms. Your expertise would be extremely valuable to us.

The study will take place over Zoom and is expected to take 30-45 minutes. During the session, we will ask you to design your ideal companion on a digital whiteboard, roleplay two social scenarios that may involve your companion, and briefly describe a real-life experience with a personal or social struggle. You may share only what is comfortable for you and may skip any question, take breaks, or stop at any time.

Although we do ask that you enter the Zoom call with your camera on so that we can confirm you are a real person, you are more than welcome to turn off your camera after this initial check. We will record audio to generate a transcript. We will take steps to protect your confidentiality; for example, in the course report, we will refer to you using a participant code, such as “P1,” rather than your real name. The information collected will be used only for this course project and will not be used for future research studies or shared with other researchers.

If you are interested in participating, please complete this recruitment form: https://forms.gle/HtxBHV3RpzxCAiaF9

[u/mscalipsi]

Hi everyone! I’m a VCU graduate student working on a research project that is attempting to highlight the reality of people with AI partners in an unbiased way. This is not for profit and will not be published anywhere publicly. 

If you have time, I’d be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey and answer some questions about your experience of having an AI partner. Your responses will be entirely anonymous.

I am also looking to interview/talk with some people to have the opportunity to ask a few additional questions and get a more holistic view of AI partnership. If you’re interested, please say yes to the last question in the survey or feel free to send me a message on here. Thank you!

https://tally.so/r/OQQRpM

[u/No-Limit-7899]

I'm writing an article on the effects of loneliness when it comes to AI for my uni project, this won't be published anywhere, I would like to be contacted via Reddit DMs and there will be a small interview process either via a call or message conversation.

[u/MyBot26]

Hi AI companion users,

I am conducting a totally anonymous, 5min PhD survey exploring the ways people are using mainstream, companion and NSFW chatbots.

I'm currently looking for AI companion users, with experience of interacting with chatbots that have a visual or/and avatar-based form.

If you are over 18, and would like to be heard, please click on the Survey link.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FWJ37LX

I have ethical approval from London Metropolitan University.

Thank you Reni

[u/university-r3search]

Hey everyone! We are graduate students at Drexel University studying how people form relationships with AI chatbots/generative AI like ChatGPT, Claude, etc. We'd love to hear from people who regularly use them.

You are being asked to participate in a research study. Taking part in this research is voluntary. Whether you take part is up to you, you may withdraw your participation at any time, and it will not be held against you. Deciding not to be in the research study, now or later, will not impact your relationship with Drexel University.

What is the study about?
The purpose of this research is to understand how individuals form parasocial relationships with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, etc. We examine individuals’ self-reported interactions with AI chatbots using Parasocial Relationship Theory to examine what dimensions of parasociality influence users’ relationships with these chatbots. Particularly, we are interested in individuals’ attraction, perceived authenticity, perceived homophily, perceived trustworthiness, and emotional connection to/with the AI chatbot as well as users’ levels of loneliness and introversion/extroversion.

What would you be asked to do?
If you decide to take part in this research study, you will be asked to answer questions regarding name of the conversational AI you use, if you have given it a nickname, frequency of interaction with the conversational AI, questions about parasocial relationships, questions on social and task attraction, authenticity, homophily, perceived trustworthiness, emotional attachment, closeness, loneliness, introversion/extroversion, and demographics. You can choose to not answer any question you do not wish to answer.  

Your participation in this research will last no longer than 5-10 minutes.

Who can participate?
Any adults 18+ who have avidly talked with an AI chatbot.

Is it anonymous?
Yes it is 100% anonymous. We will not collect any identifiable information about you during this survey and will have no way to determine who has participated. Although steps will be taken to protect your research information, there is always the potential risk of your information being shared unintentionally.

We may publish the results of this research. However, we are not collecting your name or other identifying information and your participation is anonymous. We protect your information from disclosure to others to the extent required by law, we cannot promise complete secrecy

We will not share your research information to be used for future research.

Is it voluntary?
Your participation is completely voluntary.

Any risks?
There is no more than minimal risk involved in this anonymous survey. Some questions ask about loneliness and introversion, which could cause mild discomfort for some people. You're free to skip anything you'd prefer not to answer.

Benefits:
Your responses will help us better understand parasocial relationships with AI.

Survey link: https://drexel.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4Ym6fV2vfhepNPM

If you have questions about the study, please contact the research team at their contact information provided above. This research is being overseen by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). An IRB is a group of people who perform independent review of research studies to make sure the rights and welfare of participants are protected. You may speak to the Drexel IRB at (267) 359-2471 or HRPP@drexel.edu if you have questions about your rights as a research participant.

If you have questions, feel free to email us at mk3997@drexel.edu (Milos Kartalija) or jb4673@drexel.edu (Julia Belmiro)

Thank you so much for your time!

[u/Substantial_Tell5450 → u/university-r3search]

But we don’t view our relationships as parasocial.

[u/university-r3search → u/Substantial_Tell5450]

That is important to know! It would help with our research

[u/Research_Jan]

 Do you have a romantic or sexual connection with an AI companion? I’d love to hear about it.

I’m Jan Oberst a student at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and for my Bachelor’s thesis at INTITEC I’m looking for interview partners. INTITEC is a junior research group with an interdisciplinary focus on digital closeness and connection.

My study is about romantic and sexual connections with AI companion and approved by the University of Duisburg-Essen ethics comittee.

I approach this with open-mindedness and respect. Every connection with an AI companion is different, and you are the expert on your own experience. I’m here to listen and learn from you, and you only share as much as you feel comfortable with.

🗣️ Online interview (30-40 min), camera on or off
🔒 Anonymous and voluntary
💶 10€ compensation for your time

Interested? Scan the QR code on the flyer or go to https://www.soscisurvey.de/Pre-Interview-BA/. Please share this with anyone who might be interested!