People sympathize with bullied AI bots
The researchers say the study, which used a virtual ball game, highlights humans' tendency to treat AI agents as social beings -- an inclination that should be considered when designing AI bots.
Lead author Jianan Zhou, from Imperial's Dyson School of Design Engineering, said: "This is a unique insight into how humans interact with AI, with exciting implications for their design and our psychology."
People are increasingly required to interact with AI virtual agents when accessing services, and many also use them as companions for social interaction. However, these findings suggest that developers should avoid designing agents as overly human-like.
Senior author Dr Nejra van Zalk, also from Imperial's Dyson School of Design Engineering, said: "A small but increasing body of research shows conflicting findings regarding whether humans treat AI virtual agents as social beings. This raises important questions about how people perceive and interact with these agents.
"Our results show that participants tended to treat AI virtual agents as social beings, because they tried to include them into the ball-tossing game if they felt the AI was being excluded. This is common in human-to-human interactions, and our participants showed the same tendency even though they knew they were tossing a ball to a virtual agent. Interestingly this effect was stronger in the older participants."
